Pay attention to your child's development
3/20/2025 by Jessica Davis, M.D.
No one knows your child as well as you do. Your child's clinician and care team rely on your observations of your child, those from your family and anyone who cares for your child. While every child develops at their own rate — some leap ahead, some make slow-but-sure progress — there are general milestones your child should reach around certain ages.
The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) offers checklists for following your child's developmental milestones from 2 months to 5 years old, including 15- and 30-month milestones. This site has tips and resources for how you can help your child learn and grow. Some developmental issues to watch for include:
- Speech delay. Children usually say their first word between 12 and 15 months. By 18 months, they should be saying a few words. Your child will rapidly progress in their speech for the next six months.
- Gross- or fine-motor delays. Walking usually gets underway by 15 to 16 months of age. Your child should also start putting on their clothes and picking up small items.
- Non-typical behaviors. These can range from throwing long tantrums several times a day and not calming down afterward to being more aggressive or overactive to making unusual body movements like hand flapping or head banging. Typically, these behaviors are daily struggles for parents, not just once in a while.
- Sensory sensitivities. The issues include being sensitive to sounds (covering their ears when the toilet flushes or the blender runs), clothes/shoes (don't like tags or the feel of certain fabrics) and foods (texture, temperature, etc.).
One of the best things you can do for your child's health and development is to keep your eyes open, be sure to go to all the recommended well-child visits and speak up if you sense something isn't quite right with your child.
If there is a problem, the earlier your child's care team is notified, the better the outcomes. They may decide to watch it for a while and document it to see if it persists. Ideally, a diagnosis is made when your child is between 2 and 3 years old.
Primary Care in Rochester and Kasson has an Integrated Community Specialties (ICS) clinic especially devoted to helping parents and young children (ages 9 months to 4 years 11 months) address developmental delays. The ICS Development clinic connects you with the appropriate resources and therapies, whether it's speech, physical or occupational therapy, or behavioral training for parents. Depending on the concern, your primary care clinician may refer you to this clinic, where the team will complete an initial assessment to determine if more in-depth examinations are needed.
Jessica Davis, M.D., is a general pediatrician in Community Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. She completed her medical degree at the University of Texas — San Antonio and her residency at the military program in San Antonio. She has a strong interest in caring for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and developmental delays.