Hearing that “your child should be doing X by Y age” can make you worry-and can make many families whose children have special needs feel left out.
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After all, children develop differently. And whether you feel stress or pride toward your little one’s development and progress, milestones “are just a framework of moments that experts use to track how a child is developing, and how they’re developing skills,” host Alok Patel says.
If your child is meeting milestones a little later than their peers, it’s no cause for alarm. Alok and co-host Bethany Van Delft illustrate how different children develop uniquely, and how your child’s growth may affect what they need from you, whether it be an adapted education or environment, or just patience.
Although the milestone framework helps pediatricians and other healthcare providers track a child’s development, it may not best represent children with cerebral palsy or Down syndrome, or on the autism spectrum, for instance. A child with Down syndrome may walk at a later age and the milestone framework should reflect that, too.
In the early stages of life, a baby’s brain grows rapidly. A baby’s environment and the type and level of interaction they experience often determine what they glean at this time. Typically, a baby’s vision and hearing are among the first things to develop. When it comes to language, babies babble as they begin to understand their world-and as their brains continue to grow, they develop problem-solving skills.
As children become more comfortable with their surroundings, they’ll generally experience a gradual progression and hit their developmental milestones. A baby’s spontaneous smile will first progress into laughing. Then, smiling and laughing may lead to the development of facial expressions that convey more complex feelings about the baby’s surroundings. Similarly, a child’s motor skills may begin with the child hitting an object. This progresses into the child slowly raking their hand over the item and finally holding it with a precise pincer grasp.
Children who are victims of abuse, malnutrition, or neglect can suffer developmental delays that affect them for years afterward. And this “is why it’s so important to shield kids from all these things,” says Patel. “In addition, we should support child brain development as much as we can in the early phases, and we’re identifying any red flags on those milestone charts.”
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Hosted by: Alok Patel and Bethany Van Delft
Producer/Director: Ari Daniel
Producer/Camera: Emily Zendt
Production Assistance: Diego Arenas, Christina Monnen, Arlo Pérez, Drew Powell, Madeline Weir, Amanda Willis
Senior Digital Editor: Sukee Bennett
Rights Manager: Hannah Gotwals
Business Manager: Elisabeth Frele
Managing Producer: Kristine Allington
Coordinating Producer: Elizabeth Benjes
Director of Audience Development: Dante Graves
Director of Public Relations: Jennifer Welsh
Legal and Business Affairs: Susan Rosen and Eric Brass
Director, Business Operations and Finance: Laurie Cahalane
Executive Producers: Julia Cort and Chris Schmidt
Scientific Consultants:
Lisa Prock, MD, MPH
Joshua Sparrow, MD
Archival:
Storyblocks
William Warby / flickr / CC BY 2.0
Graphics from the Noun Project:
Bat by LSE Designs
Brain by Adrien Coquet
Ear by Gregor Cresnar
emotions by Magicon
Eye by Arthur Shlain
Face & Smile by ester barbato
Hearts by Vector Valley
handprint by Laymik
Language by angelina
Pinch by Jeff Portaro
rake by Chattapat
speak by Takao Umehara
Sound Effects:
LudwigMueller / freesound / CC0 1.0
Music: APM
Funding provided by: The Patrick J McGovern Foundation and PBS
© WGBH Educational Foundation 2021