Developmental Delay

Infant and Toddler Delay

How We can Help!

Understanding your child’s development and behaviors can be challenging and overwhelming. With many different opinions and suggestions on what your child should or shouldn’t be doing can be stressful and confusing. Although, having the proper resources and education is important to improve your knowledge on ways to help your child develop to the best of their ability and Kids in Motion/Ivy Rehab for Kids is here to help.

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Your baby is growing a lot the first 24 months of their life. They are adjusting to the big world around them, creating pathways in their brain, and growing smarter every day as they learn new critical skills. As new parents, or maybe even seasoned parents, sometimes it is hard to determine whether your little one is on the right track with development. What are the red flags, and when should you be concerned?

Gross Motor Skills

Refers to using large muscles to move and coordinate the body. In the first two years of life, your baby will be learning many new coordination moves as their muscles develop and strengthen.

At 3-6 months your child should:

Be moving their arms and legs
Lift their head when on their stomach and moving their head side to side
Begin to sit with little support at the waist
Attempt to roll over, reach for toys, and put toys in their mouth

At 6-9 months your child should:

Rolling front to back and vice versa
Be able to sit on their own
Creep on their stomach
Begin to stand while holding onto furniture

At 9-12 months your child should:

Be able to crawl over and around objects
Pull to stand while holding onto furniture
Cruise along furniture
Be able to walk with two hands held

At 13-18 months your child should:

Begin standing on their own and taking their first steps
Begin creeping up/down the stairs
Squat to pick something up
Try to run stiffly

At 18-24 months your child should:

Hold your hand while walking up/down stairs
Be able to kick a ball
Jump with 2 feet

At 2-3 years old your child should:

Be fine tuning their coordination skills by

catching a large ball with two hands
jumping down from a bottom step
beginning to ride a tricycle with pedaling
standing on one foot
walking on their tiptoes

Fine Motor Skills

As their large muscles develop, your child’s small muscles strengthen in their arms and hands as well.

At 0-4 months, your child should:

Stare and follow objects with their eyes
Bring their hands to their mouth
Begin to suck on their fingers
Turn their head towards voices

At 4-8 months, your child should:

Grab objects within reach
Begin exploring objects
Prop themselves up on their arms when laying on their stomach
Pass objects from one hand to the other hand

At 8-12 months, your child should:

Begin pinching small objects with their thumb and index finger
Voluntarily grasp and release items
Bang objects together
Hold their own bottle
Wave hello/goodbye

At 12-18 months, your child should:

Begin to point to pictures in books
Scribble with a crayon
Build a tower with 2-3 blocks

At 18-24 months, your child should:

Put shapes into a shape sorter
Turn 2-3 pages of a book
String large beads
Paint/color using their whole arm to move the utensil
Begin to imitate a vertical line with a writing utensil

At ages 2-3 years old, your child should:

Begin drawing lines and circles
Demonstrate a dominant hand
Use scissors to snip and cut
Uine-tune their grasp on a writing utensil by holding it with their fingers instead of their palm

Independent Living Skills

Though your child is still young, they are always learning the foundation for self-care independence.

At 5-6 months, your child should:

Begin to show interest in placing their hands around the bottle/breast during feedings

At 6-9 months, your child should:

Begin to self-feed by holding a bottle more independently
Pick up small items and attempt to put it in their mouth
Eat a cracker independently

At 9-12 months, your child should:

Be exposed to holding and playing with a spoon although they cannot feed themselves yet
Finger feed independently
Bite and chew food
Move their jaw/tongue around while eating
Hold their arms/legs out to assist with dressing

At 12-18 months, your child should:

Begin using a spoon and cup with some spillage
Remove their socks
Put a hat on their head

At 18-24 months, your child should:

Use a fork and a spoon to feed themselves
Pull up a large zipper
Turn knob doors

At 2-3 years, your child should:

Begin dressing with supervision and fastening large buttons

Communication Skills

As an infant, your child has their own way of communicating their wants and needs. Over time, this progresses from body language and non-verbal communication to verbal expressions and cognition.

At 0-3 months, your child should:

Cry, smile, and coo
Listen to your voice
Look and focus on faces

At 3-6 months, your child should:

Begin to laugh
Cry to get comfort
Show excitement with movement
Like to be near people they love

At 6-9 months, your child should:

Begin to babble using at least four different sounds
Laugh, giggle, and gurgle for attention
React to noises
Respond to their name
Play games like peek-a-boo

At 9-11 months, your child should:

- Begin imitating sounds and facial movements
- Say few short words
- Repeat syllables and babble to sound like real speech; this is called jargon
- Show their emotions through body language.

At 12-18 months, your child should:

Understand “no” and simple directions
Imitate familiar words
Point to show/tell you something

At 18-24 months, your child should:

Use 10-20 words
Start to combine two words
Communicate wants/needs (more, juice, done, etc.)
Sing simple songs
Point to several body parts

At 24-30 months, your child should:

Demonstrates “conversations” with self and toys
Have 2-3 word sentences
Asks for items
Name pictures/actions
Have around 200 words in their vocabulary

At 30-36 months, your child should:

Identify their first name
Enjoy hearing stories
Use past tense words
Match objects to pictures
Understand simple time concepts such as ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’
Use phrases to get attention (i.e. “watch me!”)
Can answer ‘where’ questions

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Kids in Motion Pediatric Therapy clinic provides services in all areas from speech, occupational, and physical therapy to address the signs/symptoms stated above related to developmental delay.

Speech therapy will help improve your child’s communication skills by learning verbal and/or nonverbal skills. A speech therapist will engage your child in a variety of auditory and verbal stimuli such as story books, picture cards, interactive games, actual objects, etc. using different approaches and techniques to improve language skills. A speech therapist can also teach the use of an augmentative communication devices, Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), and American Sign Language. These devices and techniques can improve communication by using pictures and symbols to ask and answer questions when interacting with others.

Occupational therapy will use creative therapeutic activities to increase independence and success in ADL, fine motor, visual motor, and sensory processing skills. Occupational therapist will introduce innovative methods to improve self-dressing, self-hygiene and self-feeding skills. Your child will engage in client centered activities to increase strength and coordination/control in hands and upper extremities to complete age appropriate fine motor and visual motor skills with greater success. Occupational therapist will demonstrate and educate family on variety of sensory diet strategies specific for your child’s needs to improve regulation to perform optimally in everyday activities.

Physical therapy will help improve your child’s strength, coordination, and balance through therapeutic exercise and activities to increase success in age appropriate gross motor skills. Child will also engage in tasks such as obstacle courses incorporating variety of gym equipment to improve motor planning skills. Physical therapist may target gait retraining if toe-walking is present by working on your child’s range of motion, strengthening and incorporating different sensory techniques. Consultation with an orthotist can also be provided if needed.

Still have questions and concerns?

We are committed to helping children of all abilities achieve and live their full potential. With experienced and compassionate Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists and four locations to serve you, we feel confident that you will be more than satisfied with the care and support your child receives.

Check out our free Interactive Online Screener – once completed, it will respond with ideas to help your child in the areas you specify they might be having trouble with or contact us at 248-684-9610.