Ensuring your child is progressing developmentally is crucial for their overall well-being and future success. Early detection of delays allows for timely intervention, fostering skills in speech, motor functions, and social interactions. By monitoring their growth, you can help your child reach their full potential and navigate each developmental milestone with confidence. We expect to see the following milestones for infants ages 3 to 6 months:
Cognitive
- Respects arm or leg movements to cause an action to occur again
- Explores objects in a variety of ways
- Pull cloth from face
- Intentionally drops an object and watches it fall
- Plays with rattle placed in hand
Communication
- Laughs out loud
- Briefly stops activity when name is called
- Imitates sounds
- Makes noise when talked to
Social-Emotional
- Comfort self (e.g., sucks hand or thumb)
- Expresses desire to be picked up
- Smiles at or pats own image in the mirror
- Interacts differently with caregivers and strangers
- Initiates social contact
Adaptive
- Swallows pureed food
- Shows definite likes and dislikes of various foods
- Sucks hand or thumb
- Uses tongue to move food around in mouth
- Closes lips when swallowing
Physical Development
- Transfers an object from one hand to the other
- Bangs two objects together
- Sits for at least 5 seconds with hips supported
- Rolls from back to stomach
- Rolls from back to side
Notes:
Folio, M.R., & Fewell, R.R. (2000). Peabody developmental motor scales-Second edition. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
Kipping, P., Gard, A., Gilman, L., & Gorman, J. (2012). Speech and language development (3rd ed.), Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
Linder., T.W. (1993). Transdisciplinary play-based assessment. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Voress, J.K., & Maddox, T. (2013). Developmental assessment of young children-Second edition. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
