Observing and Documenting Developmental Milestones
What are developmental milestones?
Milestones occur in each developmental domain: physical, cognitive, language and
social/emotional.
1. Assess the four areas of development
2. Use the developmental milestone checklist provided to conduct an assessment of the
child’s developmental levels.
3. Select two milestones per developmental domain to observe and analyze.
4. Next, choose 1 of the 2 milestones per domain to study further.
a. Research logical and developmentally appropriate activities that would further the
development of the respective milestone.
Sample Solution
Developmental milestones are the skills that a child should learn by a certain age. They can be physical, cognitive, language-related or social/emotional and help track how a child is progressing in their development. In order to assess these areas of development, it is important to look for noticeable changes in behavior and achievements when compared to previous ages and stages of development (DeVries et al., 2019). For example, physical milestones may include learning how to walk or crawl whereas cognitive milestones could include remembering objects or imitating sounds. Language-related milestones may refer to using words more frequently or starting conversations while social/emotional ones might involve making friends, sharing toys or being able to control emotions like anger (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention., 2021).
In order to observe developmental milestones, it is essential to use a comprehensive checklist which can provide thorough assessments across all four domains as well as other factors such as nutrition and health status (DeVries et al., 2019). This type of document should also allow for caregivers or professionals who specialize in early childhood development such as pediatricians or speech pathologists if needed. Additionally, it provides an accurate way of tracking progress over time so that any delays can be identified quickly and taken care of accordingly (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University., 2020).
Observing developmental milestones involves not just looking out for what has been achieved but also noting what has not been mastered yet so that any potential issues can be addressed immediately. Since individual children develop at different rates depending on genetic makeup among other things, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution when assessing their progress (Danby & Ballantyne Kowalczyk , 2015). Therefore having the ability to compare each child against established norms makes monitoring much easier while enabling early intervention if necessary.
