Development Mini-Didactics

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WALKING/STAIRS

AGE

MILESTONE

7 months

Sits well independently (hands free)

9 months

Crawling (some may skip this stage)

10-11 months

Walks with hands held (cruising)

12 months

Takes few steps

13-14 months

Walks well

15 months

Stoop and recover, creeps up stairs, walks backwards

18 months

Climbing, up and down stairs with help (2 feet on each step)

2 years

Runs well, up and down stairs without help (2 feet on each step)

3 years

Up the stairs, alternating feet (down stairs = 2 feet on each step), balances one foot 3 seconds

4 years

Up and down stairs with alternating feet


CUBES

(* main growth of tower building is 15 months to 2.5 years. Then they can build things with the blocks.  See Block Skills (link) Figure )

AGE

MILESTONE

6 months

Transfers from hand to hand

8-9 months

Bangs 2 cubes together

12 months

Can release cube into a cup

15 months

Tower of 2 cubes

18 months

Tower of 3-4 cubes

2 years

Tower of 6 cubes

3 years

Tower of 8-9 cubes

2.5 years

Train

3 years

Bridge

4 years

Gate

5-6 years

Staircase


SHAPES/DRAWING

 

 

(see Gesell Figures (link) – keep a copy in clinic and have them copy as many as they can)

AGE

MILESTONE

15 months

Imitate scribble

18 months

Spontaneous scribble

2.5 years

Copies vertical line

3 years

Copies circle

4 years

Copies cross

4.5 years

Copies square

5 years

Draws 10 part person, Copies triangle

6 years

Horizontal diamond

7 years

Vertical diamond


 

 

GRASP

(See Development of Grasp Didactic (link) for pictoral explanation.)

AGE

GRASP

4-5 months

Crude palmar grasp (ulnar side)

5-6 months

Palmar grasp (Raking)

6-7 months

Radial palmar grasp

8-9 months

Inferior pincer grasp (scissorlike)

10-12 months

Mature pincer grasp

 


LANGUAGE

AGE

SOUNDS/WORDS

3 months

Cooing

4 months

varied pitch, inflected sounds

6-10 months

Babbling with initial consonant sounds (“da da da”); raspberries; non-specific dada, mama

9-13 months

Specific dada, mama

11-13 months

Pointing with index finger: first indicates wants and then “look at what I am looking at” = shared attention

18 months

6-10 words

2 years

50 word vocabulary, 2 word sentence, personal pronouns (“I, me, mine”)

3 years

250 words, 3 word sentences, name 1 color, plural nouns

3 and up

Understands simple stories, sequence

 


FAVORITE GAMES – all associated with child’s drive for mastery and acquisition of concepts; can be a rough indicator of IQ

AGE

GAMES

Conceptual Basis

7-9 months

Throw things down and want them back (also at same time as stranger anxiety), Peek–a-boo

Object permanence, separation

12-15 months

Running away and getting caught

Separation, independence

15-18 months

Imitating adult behavior, especially cleaning, throwing things in trash, talking on the telephone

Likes routine and order, opening and closing, inside vs. outside (beginning of ambivalence)

18 months

Symbolic or pretend play: tea parties, pretend one object is another

Abstract thinking begins

3-5 years

Role-playing, such as playing house, playing doctor, monsters, good guy/bad guy games

Magical thinking

Exploring identity (gender, body integrity fears, good vs. bad)

Development of defense mechanisms