Developmental Milestones: Early Childhood (0-5 years)

Updated: Jan 19, 2024

Development generally occurs in a predictable order, but skills might develop at different ages or times. Some differences between children are expected and are usually nothing to worry about.

Early Childhood Development

The first 5 years of a child’s life is an important part of development. This is the time when the foundations for learning, health and behaviour throughout life are laid down. Building positive relationships, accessing play and learning opportunities, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are all important in the child’s growing up.

If your baby was born prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy), the age at which your baby is expected to reach various milestones is based on her due date, not her birthday. For example, if your baby was born two months early, she will most likely achieve milestones two months later than the average child.

Infants: the first 6 months

Communication, Motor and General Skills

Beginning to recognise familiar faces and voices,
Becomes more aware of emotions,
Uses various facial expressions,
Makes sounds or babbles, e.g. “ba-ba-ba”, “na-na!”
Engages in reflexive and jerky actions,
Able to grasp something in their hands,
Smiles and looks towards at things nearby,
Cries when experiencing something they don’t like,
Moves their head side-to-side and stretch/kick their legs around,
Can focus on objects around 20 cm away,
Prefers high-contrast images (e.g. black against white).

It is important consider your child’s hearing and vision during this period. It may be useful to understand how hearing loss or vision impairment can affect your child’s speech and language development.

Mealtime and Growth

Weight of the baby should double at 5-6 month-old
Coordinated suck-swallow-breathe reflex when feeding,
- Factors that can affect a baby’s feeding: oro-motor skills, body positioning, health, etc.

Babies: 6 to 12 months

Communication

May form an attachment with their main caregiver and may show a fear of separation,
Beginning to recognise your words (e.g. “dog”) or gestures (e.g. waving, pointing),
Sometimes responds by looking, smiling or babbling,
May copy sounds you make, e.g. “mm-mah,”
You might notice their sounds becoming closer to real words – start looking out for those first words!

Mealtime

May be ready to try solids at 6 months of age,
Start by introducing smooth puree, then gradually transitioning to chewier textures,
Never force a child to eat as this can lead the baby to form a negative relationship with foods,
At 12 months, they may start learning to hold a small spoon, eat with their fingers or hold their bottle.

Motor Skills

Developing hand-eye coordination by reaching, touching, banging and shaking toys,
Starting to develop balance for sitting,
May move around the house by crawling,
Beginning to explore hidden objects or find out how things work using their hands or mouth,
At 12 months, they may be able to stand with support.

“Play” is an important part of a child’s growing up – increasing play time will provide opportunities for problem-solving and language-learning.

Toddlers: 1 to 3 years

Play and Social-Emotional Skills

Emergence of object permanence (they start to look for things that are hidden),
Places a doll / teddy right-side up and pretend to treat them like people,
Reaches for parent or extending a toy towards someone,
Identifies self in mirror,
Imitates simple actions previously seen,
May concentrate on an activity of their choice (not be able to multitask)
May appear distractible and can jump between topics,
Demonstrates basic emotions, e.g. joy, anger, fear, sadness, disgust,
Emerging skills in pretend play, e.g. a stick is used as a sword,
Starting to explore newer ideas in play, e.g. role-playing a doctor’s visit.

Language and Speech

Intelligibility (unfamiliar people): 25% to 75%,
May use ‘hi’, ‘bye’ or ‘please’ appropriately,
Verbalises their wants and needs (e.g. “want drink”),
Starting to learn their name,
Recognises 1- to 2-word phrases and can point to things when asked,
Follows simple 1-step instructions, e.g. “put teddy in the box,”
Starting to learn simple concepts, e.g. on/off or big/small,
Starting to learn “who”, “what”, “where” questions,
May use 2- to 4- word phrases,
Recognises basic pronouns, some prepositions, simple plural.

Mealtime

Starting to develop choice and can decide when or what they want to eat,
Exploring their likes and dislikes and develop preferences (taste, texture, familiarity),
Developing independent feeding skills, e.g. with cutlery, cups and hands.

Motor Skills

Starting to take a few steps without support (uses hands up for balance),
Developing skills in kicking, throwing and rolling a ball,
May scribble with pencil or crayon held in a fist,
Can turn pages of a book, two or three pages at a time.

Pre-School: 3 to 5 years

Play and Social-Emotional Skills

Can concentrate on one activity at a time and may follow adult instruction while doing so (without stopping the activity),
Able to initiate conversations and enjoys playing with peers,
Developing skills in back-and-forth conversation,
Able to choose friends or people to play with,
Continues to construct make-believe play activities, e.g. building a house with Lego,
Beginning to negotiate, discuss feelings and give opinions.

Language and Speech

Intelligibility (unfamiliar people): 75% to 100%,
Able to follow 2-step instructions, e.g. “get your bag and wait by the door,”
Able to use language to disagree,
Developing use of personal pronouns (e.g. he/she) and negations (don’t or can’t),
Understanding “same” versus “different,”
Answers and asks most wh-questions,
Recognising time differences in words, e.g. “today is sunny, yesterday was cold,”
Developing regular past tense and future tense words, e.g. “we played ball yesterday!”
May follow simple stories without pictures,
Developing narrative skills (tells a short story with a beginning, middle and end),
Developing an understanding of colours and numbers.
Starting to understand sequencing vocabulary, e.g. “first… next… last…”
Forming some simple sentences with some grammatical errors,
Using some simple conjunctions, e.g. and, but, because,
Able to ask for help with unfamiliar words, e.g. “what does that mean?”

Motor Skills

Dresses and undresses with little help,
Can hop, jump and run with ease,
Efficiently throws a ball and may attempt to catch a ball with hands,
Partakes in playground activities with increased agility,
Holds crayon or pencil between thumb and first two fingers and begins to exhibit hand preference,
Able to imitate drawing shapes and developing skills in using scissors to cut paper,
Children continue to develop their independence in using the toilet.

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