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2.21.2024

Learn the Signs – Act Early

A silhouette-type image of a young girl holding an adult's hand with the sun in the background.

As a parent, you already have what it takes to help your young child learn and grow. Understanding key developmental milestones will help you look for signs of delays or potential concerns to discuss with your healthcare provider, early childhood program, or other early childhood partner. If concerns arise, you may be advised to have a developmental screening completed with a trained early childhood professional. 

Developmental milestones are skills and behaviors that babies and young children experience at certain ages as they grow. Parents, grandparents, early childhood providers and other caregivers can participate in developmental monitoring to observe how your child grows and changes over time and to determine whether your child meets the typical developmental milestones for their age.

You can review the developmental milestones on the First 5 Nevada website or you can download the CDC’s Checklist. Both resources offer a list of key milestones based on the age of your child, issues to discuss with your child’s healthcare provider, and tips for helping your child grow and learn.

The CDC has also developed a free Milestone Tracker App that is available on iOS and Android devices. 

Developmental screening takes a closer look at how your child is developing.
Your child will get a brief test, or you will complete a questionnaire about your child. The tools used for developmental and behavioral screening are formal questionnaires or checklists based on research that ask questions about a child’s development, including language, movement, thinking, behavior, and emotions. 

Developmental screening can be done by a doctor or nurse, but also by other professionals in healthcare, early childhood education, community, or school settings. Developmental screening is more formal than developmental monitoring and is normally done less often than developmental monitoring. 

Your child should be screened if you or your doctor have a concern. However, developmental screening is a regular part of some of the well-child visits for all children even if there is not a known concern.

If you have any concerns about your child’s development, talk to your child’s healthcare provider or early childhood provider right away. The sooner you act, the sooner you and your child can receive the resources and support they need to grow and thrive!

Resources:

 

All content in this article was adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Learn the Signs, Act Early Program. 

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First 5 Nevada, a program of The Children's Cabinet, is supported by the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five Initiative (PDG B-5), Grant Number 90TP099, awarded to the Nevada Department of Education, from the Office of Child Care, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Office of Child Care, the Administration for Children and Families, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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