Developmental milestones are a general list of the things that most typically developing children can do by a certain age. It's important to remember that all children develop differently, in their own unique ways and at their own pace. You can use milestones as a general guide to understand if your child is meeting ‘typical developmental’ for their age.

3-4 months developmental milestones

At 3-4 months, your baby is busy learning about emotions and communication. Babies at this age will typically:

• know your voice and turn their head when they hear you
• laugh out loud, smile when they see or hear things that they like
• make sounds like "ah-goo" or babble
• play with appropriate toys, look at them closely and shake them
• have improved control of their head movements compared to newborn stage

Read more

12-18 months developmental milestones

By the time babies reach their first birthday, in developmental terms, they are considered to be toddlers.

Here are some of the milestones to look out for in typically developing toddlers.

At 12-15 months they may be able to:

• stand up
• take their first steps
• finger feed themselves
• shake and bang objects
• point to people or things they know when asked about them
• Show affection to loved ones like giving hugs
• Start to understand how others are feeling – for example look sad if someone else is sad

At around 15-18 months they may:

• take their first steps if they haven’t yet
• start to explore climbing
• start to run
• move their body to music
• try using a spoon to feed themselves
• start to pick up small objects
• recognise their own name
• recognise themselves in the mirror
• follow simple instructions like fetching something 

Read more

18 to 24 Months developmental milestones

Here are some of the milestones for typically developing children aged 18 to 24 months, they may:

• experience lots of new and big emotions like anger and excitement
• link how they are feeling with words, like telling you that they feel “sad” or “happy”
• Learning to feed themselves with a little less mess!
• Be able to follow instructions like “give me the ball”
• Try to help when they are getting dressed and undressed, like taking off their socks
• Start to experiment with pretend or make-believe play
• Learning new words and name familiar objects, people and body parts
• Put together words to get their point across like “me do it”
• Have an increased sense of self and understand the idea of “mine”
• Ask for “more” and say “no”
• Mimic behaviours
• Sit themselves in a small chair

Learn more

2-3 years developmental milestones

At aged two to three, your little one is going through many emotions and learning about other people’s feelings. Tantrums are common because toddlers can’t always communicate how they are feeling and they can get frustrated because of this.

Here are some of the milestones for typically developing children aged 2-3 years, they may be:

• using sentences of 2-5 words or more
• starting to understand concepts like time night time and day time
• starting to understand opposites like big and small
• enjoying playing with others games like dress ups, and make believe
• getting better at taking turns
• be ready to start toilet training
• be able to run, jump, ride a tricycle

Read more

Getting support

As the peak body for developmental delay in Queensland, we're here to provide information, resources and connect you with the right support, if you have any concerns about your child's development. Visit the developmental delay section of our website for more info.