Question

One of the measurements that can be used to determine a child’s developmental progression is to compare the child to the typical developmental milestones. Some examples of developmental milestones are when an infant first sits up, crawls, and walks. There are also developmental milestones for communication, emotional, and social development. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provides some extensive information on developmental milestones for infants and young children. (Hint: Type "CDC: Developmental Milestones" into your preferred search engine.) Why is understanding a child’s developmental milestones so important, especially communication, social, and emotional development?

Answer 1

Developmental milestone can be defined as an ability that is achieved by most children around a certain age. The developmental milestones of a child are associated with the learning of skills such as walking, sharing with others, expressing emotions, recognizing familiar sounds, and talking. One must understand that every child is unique and learns at its own pace. A child may reach a milestone early or may a few days later.This does not necessarily mean that one child is gifted or that another is delayed. The developmental milestone should be taken as guidance.

The development of emotions, social skills, and communication as per the milestone is a very important sign that the child is growing normally. These developmental abilities tend to build on one another. These skills will help the child in interacting and playing with other people. One-year-old learning how to say his first words and a five-year-old learning some of the basic rules of grammar are examples of important communication milestones. Keeping a careful eye on the developmental milestones helps in spotting a problem early on consequently timely remedial actions can result in a successful outcome.