Celebrating Your Patient’s Developmental Milestones

Pediatric Home Care Nurses are responsible for helping children grow to their full potential. To accomplish this, nurses must look back on a child’s past to find out how much they’ve grown and how they can improve. 

What are Developmental Milestones? 

Developmental milestones are ways to monitor a child’s development and growth. All children can reach different milestones in how they play, learn, speak, act, and move. Developmental milestones in children can include the following: rolling over, crawling, taking a first step, smiling for the first time, waving goodbye, and talking.

When a child is struggling to reach certain milestones, it can indicate that he or she is experiencing a developmental delay. 

How to Determine These Milestones

In order to fully understand a child’s development, it’s important to recognize the four different categories of milestones:

• Movement/physical development
• Language communication development
• Social-emotional development
• Cognitive development 

Between infant years to adolescent years, children should be able to exhibit different physical and mental behaviors.    

Infant (Birth to 1 Year)

When a child is an infant to 1 year old, he or she could exhibit milestones that include the following:

• Drink from a cup
• Make sounds
• Smile
• Sit alone, without support
• Pull to a standing position 
• Roll over 
• Walk with support
• Say “mama” and “dada” 

Toddler (1 to 3 Years)

From 1 to 3 years old, a child can show the following developmental milestones: 

• Eat and drink with minimal spilling
• Run, pivot, and walk backward
• Draw a line when shown
• Dress self with some help
• Imitate the speech of others (echoes)
• Share toys and take turns with games
• Walk

Preschooler (3 to 6 Years)

As a child progresses to preschool age (3 to 6 years old) they will reach the following milestones:

• Draw a circle and square
• Catch a bounced ball 
• Hop on one foot
• Exhibit good balance
• Understand size and time concepts 
• Recognize written words

School Age (6 to 12 Years)

When a child hits 6 to 12 years old, they should be able to hit the following milestones:

• Read 
• Participate in team-oriented exercises like sports teams, dance classes, etc. 
• Establish a daytime routine 
• Follow directions  

Adolescent (12 to 18 Years)

At 12 to 18 years old, children will most likely reach their peak of childhood development milestones. They should be able to exhibit the following:

• Understand the value of peer acceptance
• Comprehend abstract concepts 

*It’s important to note that all children grow and reach milestones differently, especially medically fragile children. While these milestones have expectations for specific ages, if a child is not meeting them, that doesn’t always mean that they will never reach them. 

How Thrive SPC Celebrates Developmental Milestones 

Growth and development isn’t always a linear process; while some things progress at a natural pace, other aspects might not.

Nurses who work at Thrive SPC want to make a difference in the lives of children and their families. They celebrate a patient’s good days and big developmental milestones and are there to offer support when the child or a family member is having a bad day. No matter how quickly a child is developing, Thrive SPC is there to provide high-quality home care.