Developmental Milestones

Programs must be developed in order to close the gap in local practice for parent’s roles with accurately understanding developmental milestones and getting early intervention (EI) for their child prior to kindergarten.
Pediatricians and pediatric health care professionals are responsible for recognizing and addressing any developmental problems. Studies recommend that children should be observed to see if they are reaching milestones at every well-child checkup. It is common that h frequency of visits decrease after 24 months of age, but parents should be educated on how crucial it is to continue to visit their pediatrician (Council on Children With Disabilities, Section on Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, Bright Futures Steering Committee,
This could result in late recognition, depriving the child of the benefits of early recognition (Council on Children With Disabilities, Section on Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, Bright Futures Steering Committee, & Medical Home Initiatives for Children With Special Needs Project Advisory Committee, 2006). Parents often expect their child’s pediatrician to observe and identify any developmental programs. A child’s developmental history is something parent’s keep track of. This history is a key piece in determining if the child is reaching their milestones. A delay is evident when someone knowledgeable about milestone observed. Often parents are uneducated therefore they don’t realize that a there are developmental problems until a major milestone is missed. Newborn were assessed by a neurologist in a study, they were assessed at 1,3 and 5 years old. Parental history recall was examined at ages 3 and 5. Parents were asked to recall two milestones: first steps and first meaningful word. Results indicated that parent’s recall is not always valid and can be imprecise (Majnemer & Rosenblatt,
Screening tools enable early recognition and allow to early enrollment in EI programs. Milestone checklists that currently exist are informal which explains why health care professionals only detect less than one-third of the children who have delays in milestones. Brothers, Glascoe, & Robertshaw (2008) explored the validity and accuracy of the PEDS: Developmental Milestones tool. This tool was created to be used as an alternative to the informal milestone checklist. The PEDS:DM is reliable, valid and an accurate measure of milestones, it is likely to identify children with possible developmental delays (Brothers, Glascoe, & Robertshaw,