After completing this article, readers should be able to:
This is the first of three articles on developmental milestones; the second and third articles will appear in the September and November 2010 issues of Pediatrics in Review, respectively.
Infancy and childhood are dynamic periods of growth and change. Neurodevelopmental and physical growth proceed in a sequential and predictable pattern that is intrinsically determined. Skills progress from cephalic to caudal; from proximal to distal; and from generalized, stimulus-based reflexes to specific, goal-oriented reactions that become increasingly precise. As one clinician has stated, “infants [and children] are very orderly in their ways; they actually behave [and develop] according to laws that can be explored, discovered, confirmed, reconfirmed, and celebrated.” (1) By convention, these neurodevelopmental “laws” or sequences often are described in terms of the traditional developmental milestones.
Milestones provide a framework for observing and monitoring a child over time....
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