0-3 Years Developmental Checklist

Babies develop at their own pace, so it's impossible to tell exactly when your child will learn a given skill. The developmental milestones listed below will give you a general idea of the changes you can expect, but don't be alarmed if your own baby's development takes a slightly different course.


Milestones by the end of 3 months

Social and Emotional
  • Begins to develop a social smile
  • Enjoys playing with other people and may cry when playing stops
  • Becomes more expressive and communicates more with face and body
  • Imitates some movements and facial expressions
Movement
  • Raises head and chest when lying on stomach
  • Supports upper body with arms when lying on stomach
  • Stretches legs out and kicks when lying on stomach or back
  • Opens and shuts hands
  • Pushes down on legs when feet are placed on a firm surface
  • Brings hand to mouth
  • Takes swipes at dangling objects with hands
  • Grasps and shakes hand toys
Vision
  • Watches faces intently
  • Follows moving objects
  • Recognizes familiar objects and people at a distance
  • Starts using hands and eyes in coordination
Hearing and Speech
  • Smiles at the sound of your voice
  • Begins to babble
  • Begins to imitate some sounds
  • Turns head toward direction of sound

Milestones by the end of 7 months

Social and Emotional
  • Enjoys social play
  • Interested in mirror images
  • Responds to other people's expressions of emotion and appears joyful often
Movement
  • Rolls both ways (front to back, back to front)
  • Sits with, and then without, support on hands
  • Supports whole weight on legs
  • Reaches with one hand
  • Transfers objects from hand to hand
  • Uses hand to rake objects
Vision
  • Develops full color vision
  • Distance vision matures
  • Ability to track moving objects
Language
  • Responds to own name
  • Begins to respond to "no"
  • Can tell emotions by tone of voice
  • Responds to sound by making sounds
  • Uses voice to express joy and displeasure
  • Babbles chains of sounds
Cognitive
  • Finds partially hidden objects
  • Explores with hands and mouth
  • Struggles to get objects that are out of reach

Milestones by the end of 1 Year

Social and Emotional
  • Shy or anxious with strangers
  • Cries when mother or father leaves
  • Enjoys imitating people in his play
  • Shows preferences for certain people/toys
  • Test parental responses to his behavior
  • May be fearful in some situations
  • Prefers mother and/or regular caregiver over others
  • Repeats sounds or gestures for attention
  • Finger-feeds himself or herself
  • Extends arm or leg to help with being dressed
Movement
  • Reaches sitting position without assistance
  • Crawls forward on belly
  • Assumes hands-and-knees position
  • Creeps on hands and knees
  • Gets from sitting to crawling or prone (lying on stomach) position
  • Pulls self up to stand
  • Walks holding on to furniture
  • Stands momentarily without support
  • May walk to or three steps without support
Hand and Finger Skills
  • Uses pincer to grasp
  • Bangs two objects together
  • Puts objects into and takes objects out of container
  • Lets objects go voluntarily
  • Tries to imitate scribbling
Language
  • Pays increasing attention to speech
  • Responds to simple verbal requests
  • Responds to "no"
  • Uses simple gestures
  • Babbles with inflection (changes in tone)
  • Says "dada" and "mama"
  • Tries to imitate words
Cognitive
  • Explores objects in many different ways (shaking, banging, throwing, dropping)
  • Finds hidden objects easily
  • Looks at correct picture when the image is named
  • Imitates gestures
  • Begins to use objects correctly (drinking from a cup, brushing hair, dialing phone)







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