Young children develop at a rapid rate between birth and age 5. In the first 18 months of a child’s life, some major milestones are within reach in the areas of social-emotional development, language, cognition, and physical development and health. All of these areas of development are important for ensuring that children get a good start in life, and there are some simple things you can do to help children reach these important milestones.

Social-Emotional Development: In the first few months, children are learning to respond to the world around them through their relationships with adults. Infants begin to respond when songs are sung to them and will reach and grasp for objects nearby.
At home, you can:

1. Talk to your baby during diaper changes and feeding;
2. Sing songs with rhyme, rhythm, and repetition;
3. Provide soft toys and a safe environment with a variety of sights, sounds, and reflections.

Language Development: Even before children can speak, they will begin to show understanding of some words and respond excitedly when they hear familiar words, like “bottle.”
At home, you can:

1. Listen to music, stories, and nursery rhymes together;
2. Respond to baby’s verbal and nonverbal expressions;
3. Name and help baby point to familiar objects, or family photos, or pictures in baby-friendly board books.

Cognitive Development: Children begin to develop a sense of numbers and math concepts at a very young age, and you may notice that your baby enjoys watching adults sing songs and do finger plays that refer to counting or numbers.
At home, you can:

1. Do fingerplays and sing counting songs, such as “5 Little Ducks” ;
2. Model how to count things in your environment “out loud”.

This will help your child build a familiarity with numbers and help him learn how to describe his world.

Physical Development and Health: Children accomplish several major physical development milestones in the first 18 months, and one of the first accomplishments for infants is developing a sense of balance, control, and coordination.
At home, you can:

1. Provide periods of supervised “tummy time” while baby is awake;
2. Encourage baby to lift her head and chest while she is on her tummy.

This will allow her time to practice balance, develop control, and strengthen the muscles that will help her achieve future milestones, such as rolling over, sitting independently, and crawling!



Source: Virginia’s Early Childhood Development Alignment Project Milestones of Development.
A complete electronic version is available at www.dss.virginia.gov/family/cc/index.html

---

Are you enjoying the Smart Beginnings newsletter?
We would appreciate your feedback, click here to particpate in our 6 question survey.