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• Your Child's Development
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Preschool: Your Child's Development

Child development refers to the ways in which children become able to do more complex things as they get older. It is not the same as growth which only refers to the child getting bigger in size. Child development involves development of skills in the following areas:

• Gross motor-use of large groups of muscles to sit, stand , walk, run, etc., keeping balance and changing positions
• Fine motor- use of the hands to eat, draw, play, dress, write, etc.
• Language- talking; use of gestures, facial expressions and other body language to communicate; understanding of what others say
• Cognitive- thinking skills including reasoning, memory, problem-solving, learning and understanding
• Social- interactions with others; cooperating and responding to the needs and feelings of others; relationships with family members, friends, peers and adults
• Adaptive behavior- self-help skills including dressing, feeding, toileting, etc

Developmental milestones are specific skills or tasks that most children can do by a certain age range. Pediatricians use developmental milestones to evaluate how your child is developing. The actual age at which a normally developing child reaches each milestone can vary quite a bit, but should fall within a certain range. When a child does not reach developmental milestones at the expected times and instead shows major ongoing delay in the development process, the pediatrician may suspect a developmental delay. Developmental delays can occur in one or more of the areas listed above.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, some typical *** developmental milestones include:
***This chart is not designed to include all developmental milestones. All children develop at different rates. If you have concerns, please contact your pediatrician.

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