Developmental Milestones in the First 2 Yr of Life
Milestone	Average Age of Attainment (mo)	Developmental Implications
Gross Motor
Head steady in sitting	2	Allows more visual interaction
Pull to sit, no head lag	3	Muscle tone
Hands together in midline	3	Self-discovery
Asymmetric tonic neck reflex gone	4	Child can inspect hands in midline
Sits without support	6	Increasing exploration
Rolls back to stomach	6	Truncal flexion, risk of falls
Walks alone	12	Exploration, control of proximity to parents
Runs	16	Supervision more difficult
Fine Motor
Grasps rattle	3.5	Object use
Reaches for objects	4	Visuomotor coordination
Palmar grasp gone	4	Voluntary release
Transfers object hand to hand	5.5	Comparison of objects
Thumb-finger grasp	8	Able to explore small objects
Turns pages of book	12	Increasing autonomy during book time
Scribbles	13	Visuomotor coordination
Builds tower of two cubes	15	Uses objects in combination
Builds tower of six cubes	22	Requires visual, gross, and fine motor coordination
Communication(Social) and Language
Smiles in response to face, voice	1.5	Child more active social participant
Monosyllabic babble	6	Experimentation with sound, tactile sense
Inhibits to "no"	7	Response to tone (nonverbal)
Follows one-step command with gesture	7	Nonverbal communication
Follows one-step command without gesture (e.g.,"Give it to me")	10	Verbal receptive language
Speaks first real word	12	Beginning of labeling
Speaks 4-6 words	15	Acquisition of object and personal names
Speaks 10-15 words	18	Acquisition of object and personal names
Speaks two-word sentences (e.g., "Mommy shoe")	19	Beginning grammaticization, corresponds with 50+ word vocabulary
Cognitive
Stares momentarily at spot where object disappeared (e.g., yarn ball dropped)	2	Lack of object permanence (out of sight, out of mind)
Stares at own hand	4	Self-discovery, cause and effect
Bangs two cubes	8	Active comparison of objects
Uncovers toy (after seeing it hidden)	8	Object permanence
Egocentric pretend play (e.g., pretends to drink from cup)	12	Beginning symbolic thought
Uses stick to reach toy	17	Able to link actions to solve problems
Pretend play with doll (gives doll bottle)	17	Symbolic thought