Developmental Milestones: Birth to Age Three Essay

After birth, babies will start to grow at an incredibly fast rate during their first year of life. As they grow, babies will experience developmental milestones. Developmental milestones are skills that babies will acquire such as recognizing the voices of their parents, smiling, making sounds, rolling over, sitting up. Throughout the rest of their young lives, children will experience developmental milestones. Milestones are categorized into three areas of development: motor development, language development, and social/emotional development. Some children will develop and achieve certain milestones in accordance with a milestone chart, or by the prediction of a physician. While each child will experience developmental milestones, they will do so at varying rates. Every child will develop at their own rate, and within their own time. Although, there are special instances where development has been arrested due to an illness or premature birth. In instances such as these, it is necessary for the parents to consult their physician to determine a developmental time line for their child’s particular need. In general, it should be understood that babies will crawl, and take that first step, when the time is right for them.