Fact sheet

Infancy and Toddlerhood

Two physical developmental milestones that typically develop in children in infancy and
toddlerhood are reflexes and motor skills. Some of new born reflexes are rooting and swimming
reflexes. Rooting reflexes helps a breastfeed baby find the nipple, (Berk, 2013, pg.130).
Swimming reflex helps the infant stay afloat if dropped in water, (Berk, 2013, pg.130). This
reflex appears around 4 to 6 months. A motor skill is an action that involves the movement of
muscles in your body. Gross motor skills are larger movements involving the arm, leg, or feet
muscles or the entire body. The baby will hold their head up. Fine motor skills involve the
movement of smaller muscles like the eyes, hands, feet, toes, tongue and lips
Two language developmental milestones for developing children at this period of
development is crying and babbling. They begin by using his tongue, lips, palate, and any
emerging teeth to make sounds (cries at first, then "ooh's" and "ahh's" in the first month or two,
and babbling shortly thereafter,( BabyCenter,1997-2015).By the age of one, they know one or
Two words; imitates sounds and responds to simple commands.
Cognitive developmental milestones for infants and toddlers start soon after birth.Babies
come into the world with a primitive ability to learn though imitation (Berk, 2013, pg.145), by
copying behaviors of other people. Habituation refers to a gradual reduction in the strength of a
response due to repetitive stimulation, (Berk, 2013, pg.142).

By the age of one, they can stack rings on a peg, and attempts to play with another child.
Two social-emotional milestones to look for are, they can recognize self in mirror or picture and
refers to self by name. They may hit, bite or fight over a toy; shows anger through aggressive
behavior. Some would call this terrible twos. The terrible twos are a normal stage in a toddler's
development. While the terrible twos can be difficult for parents and caregivers to navigate, keep

in mind that 2-year-olds are undergoing major motor, intellectual, social and emotional changes.
Their vocabularies are growing, they are eager to do things on their own, and they are beginning
to discover that they're expected to follow certain
rules.
(yahoo.com)

By age two children should shares toys, and are starting to take turns with assistance. They use
I, me, you" often.
Some children may display behaviors that fall out of the normal predictable range of
development; this is atypical development. Atypical describes children with developmental
differences, deviations, or marked delays; Children whose development appears to be incomplete
or inconsistent with typical patterns and sequence. As teachers/caregivers we monitor the
childrens milestones. Children who exhibit signs of developmental problems in certain areas

often continue to develop like a typical child in every other way. Developmental delay is
identified through two types of play-based assessments.

Developmental Screening -. A screening test is only meant to identify children

who might have a problem. If the results of a screening test suggest a child may have a
developmental delay, the child should be referred for a developmental evaluation. (CASRC,
2008)

Developmental Evaluation-A developmental evaluation is a long, in-depth

assessment of a child's skills and should be administered by a highly trained professional. .
(CASRC, 2008).
If a child is found on a developmental evaluation to have some developmental delays, it
is important that intervention occurs early on in childhood.

Berk, L. E. (2013).Child development. (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
.