Appendix 1
Age Physical Intellectual Language Social and emotional 1 to 3
months
1. Move with smoother and more controlled body motions.
2. Straighten out legs and kick with greater force.
3. Lift head and chest when lying on his tummy and support his body with both forearms.
4. Keep head up fairly steadily when held in sitting position.
5. Keep hands open most of the time.
6. Grasp rattle placed in his palm.
7. Bring his hand to his mouth and suck.
8. Bring both hands together and plays with own fingers.
9. Try to hit at dangling objects with his body or arms.
1. Explore surroundings with his eyes.
2. Look intently at human faces, especially mother’s face.
3. Recognize and visually follow familiar people at distance (several feet away).
4. Move his head and turn his eyes from side to side to follow moving objects.
5. Look and play with his own hands.
1. Start to imitate some sounds.
2. Start cooing or
vocalizing with different sound e.g. “Ah”, “Ooh”.
3. Turn his head to the direction of sound, such as mother’s voice.
4. Listen to music.
5. Smile at familiar voices, especially mother’s voice.
1. Use social smile as means of communication, especially with familiar persons.
2. Imitate mother’s facial expressions directed towards him.
3. Communicate his feelings and needs by crying, cooing, different facial expressions and body movements.
4. Frolic when played with and may cry when playing stops.
Age Physical Intellectual Language Social and emotional 4 to 7
months
1. Roll over from tummy to back and reverse.
2. Push up his head and body with hands when lying on his tummy.
3. Sit with support of his hands or even free his arms for short while.
4. Support full weight of his body when being held upright.
5. Reach out and grasp objects.
6. Explore objects held with both hands.
7. Transfer object from one hand to the other.
8. Rake small objects with fingers and pick them up with fingers and thumb together.
9. Play with his feet and even put them into his mouth.
1. Show interest in colourful pictures.
2. Readily recognize familiar persons at a distance (several feet away).
3. Follow objects with quick and smooth eye movements.
4. Fixate and follow tiny objects (e.g. chocolate beans) at near (about 12 to 15 inches).
5. Enjoy making sound with toys (e.g. rattle) and objects (e.g. keys) repeatedly.
6. Enjoy playing “peek-a-boo”.
7. Find partially hidden objects.
1. Respond to people calling him.
2. Distinguish emotional tone of voice.
3. Babble chains of consonants like “bah- bah”, “da-da”.
4. Imitate different sounds made by adult.
5. Turn head readily in response to mother’s voice across the room.
6. Localize the source of soft noise produced on either side.
1. Show strong preference for mother or caretaker.
2. Start to develop stranger anxiety.
3. Show interest in his own image in the mirror.
Age Physical Intellectual Language Social and emotional 8 to 12
months
1. Get to sitting position without assistance.
2. Sit well on the floor and can turn his body around to both sides without falling.
3. Get from sitting to crawling or prone position.
4. Creep on tummy, or crawl on hands and knees, or shuffle on bottom.
5. Lower self from standing to sitting or squatting position while holding onto furniture.
6. Pull self up to standing. Cruise around holding onto furniture.
7. Stand with support and may stand alone momentarily.
8. Walk when hands held by adult or may take a few steps on his own.
9. Poke with index fingers.
10. Pick up tiny objects using thumb and index finger (like pincers).
11. Take objects out and put into containers.
12. Release objects voluntarily.
13. Deliberately drop toys repeatedly for adult to pick up.
14. Finger feed (i.e. feeds himself using fingers to hold his food).
15. Help in dressing by holding out arms and legs.
1. Explore objects in many different ways (shaking, banging, throwing and dropping).
2. Find hidden toys easily.
3. Understand the correct use of daily objects (e.g. comb for combing hair).
4. Start engaging in make-believe play with household objects (e.g. Babbling into the telephone).
5. Maintain relatively short attention span.
1. Pay increasing attention to speech.
2. Make his wants known by gestures, pointing with index fingers or even words.
3. Understand “No”.
4. Respond to simple situational commands e.g. Wave “bye-bye”,
“give mummy”.
5. Shake head for “No”.
6. Vocalize long babbles (long strings of syllables) or jargon (speech-like vocalizations).
7. Try to imitate words.
8. Speak 1 to 2 words spontaneously in a meaningful way like
“ma-ma” or “da-da”.
1. Appear shy or anxious with strangers, show distress when parents leave.
2. Show preference for certain persons and toys.
3. Test out parental response to his behaviors.
4. Enjoy imitating other’s action in his play.
Age Physical Intellectual Language Social and emotional 1 year
to 2 years
1. Use walking as the usual means of mobility by around 18 months, although he may look unsteady on his legs.
2. Walk alone well by 2 years.
3. Squat down to pick up object from the floor without falling.
4. Walk with quick steps or even run.
5. Carry or pull along toys while walking.
6. Climb up and down furniture without assistance.
7. Walk up and down stairs holding onto support.
8. Try to kick ball.
9. Build towers of four or more bricks/
blocks.
10. Turn several pages of book at a time but cannot turn page by page.
11. Turn knobs and unscrew bottle cap.
1. Begin to sort objects by shapes and sizes.
2. Enjoy pretend play, initially involving only himself (e.g. feeding himself with a spoon), then gradually involving others (e.g. feeding Mummy or a doll).
3. Start learning to solve problems with trial and error.
4. Able to identify himself and his family members in the mirror or from a picture.
1. Point to body parts in response to naming.
2. Recognize names of familiar people and objects.
3. Follow simple instructions like “give me the ball” without gestured cues.
4. Say single words, first mainly nouns and then verbs.
5. Start combining words e.g. “Mummy eat”,
“want cookies” .
6. Understand the meaning of “not allowed”.
1. Being self-centred.
2. Enjoy watching and being around other children, usually older ones.
3. Show possessiveness and compete for toys.
4. Use gestures (e.g.
pointing) or speech to show his needs and to direct your attention to his interest.
5. Learn to play with others in an interactive way (towards the latter half of this period).
6. Imitate behaviours and activities of others, especially adults and older kids.
Age Physical Intellectual Language Social and emotional 1 year
to 2 years
12. Put pegs into holes.
13. Scribble with crayon.
14. Able to drink with a sucking tube.
15. Try feeding self with spoon and drinking from cup.
16. Able to take off shoes.
17. Able to pick up small objects like pins, threads, dried grapes, etc.
18. Able to screw off a cap or turn a door knob.
19. Show tendency to use one hand.
7. Use one word to stand for collective meaning like: “mi-mi” refers to all animals with four-feet,
“car” refers to all kinds of vehicles.
7. Start indicating toilet needs.
Source: Family Health Service, Department of Health, “Happy Parenting!”
Appendix 2