Important Baby Steps

Understanding the different levels and markers of how a child grows and develops

- Archana Gogoi

The evolution of the foetus is fascinating. Every aspect of growth in a child takes place in a sequential manner, and the different levels and markers of this growth are commonly known as ‘Development Milestones’.

Motor Skills

When we look at a typically developing child, we observe that the baby grows and develops in many ways. The child uses larger muscles to hold their head upright, sit up, kneel, crawl and gradually stand up and start walking. These are the gross motor areas of development. Similarly, the baby learns to use smaller muscles to pick up, hold and play with objects and toys, grasp crayons and colour pictures or turn pages of a book. These are some of the fine motor areas of development.

There are other areas such as the socio-emotional ability to understand others’ emotions, feelings and develop attachment for others. These include the development of a social smile, attachment to the mother and other immediate family members, etc. There is also the cognitive area of development, which can be seen in the child’s ability to learn, think and solve problems such as to search for objects, solve jigsaw puzzles, among others. The child starts to communicate by developing receptive and express skills, which is the ability to understand language, hear and learn words and build vocabulary to express emotions and feelings verbally as well as through nonverbal gestures.

Becoming Independent