Developmental Delay: What is it?
Developmental delay or delayed gross motor skills is when your child is not appropriately achieving their gross motor milestones; such as rolling, sitting, crawling, pulling to stand, cruising, or walking. Usually the parent or caregiver is the first to notice that their child is not progressing at the same rate as other children of their age. Trust your judgment! If you are concerned about your child’s development, do not hesitate to bring up your concerns with your child’s pediatrician.
What do we do?
As pediatric physical therapists, we specialize in the movement of children and child development. We work with children and their families to improve their child’s ability to perform age appropriate skills by strengthening, stretching, exercises, motor planning, and movement training. We perform these tasks through the use of play in order to make it fun and motivating for your child to learn a new skill.
Developmental Milestones for Gross Motor Skills
Birth-2 months
· Raises head slightly off floor when on stomach
· Holds head up momentarily when held at shoulder with back supported
· When lying on back, alternates kicking legs and arms thrust in play
· Able to roll from side to back
3-5 months
· Lifts head and chest when on stomach and props on forearms
· Improved head control with some head bobbing
· Rolls from back to side
· Sits briefly with hands placed on support surface
· Reaching/batting at objects
· Brings hands to midline
6-8 months
· Brings feet to mouth or grabs feet with hands
· Reaches for objects while on stomach
· Pivots on stomach
· Pulls self forward on stomach (belly crawl)
· Rolls from back to stomach
· Sits alone briefly without arm support
· Transitions from sitting to stomach
· Stands with support
· Gets onto hands and knees
9-11 months
· Sits independently with trunk rotation
· Pivots and/or scoots in sitting
· Creeps or crawls
· Pulls to stand at support surface
· Cruising along furniture
· Stands alone briefly
12-15 months
· Gets into tall kneeling
· Walks on knees
· Transitions to stand from floor
· Stands without support
· Walks independently
· Crawls up the stairs
· Climbs on chairs/furniture
16-18 months
· Crawls backwards down stairs
· Walks up one step at a time with hand held or railing
· Walks with heel-toe gait pattern and rarely falls
· Able to take steps sideways and backwards
· Runs stiffly
· Able to progress riding toy forward
· Kicks ball after visual demonstration
19-24 months
· Walks down 1 step at a time with 1 hand held or handrail support
· Walks on balance beam with 1 foot on and 1 foot off
· Jumps in place
2-3 years
· Briefly stands on 1 foot
· Runs with fair form
· Jumps forward
· Jumps down from 1 step
· Negotiates playground equipment (slides, ladders, etc)
· Throws ball overhead
· Walks up and down stairs without support
· Catches playground sized ball
3-4 years
· Negotiates a tricycle
· Gallops
· Throws ball overhand and underhand at least 7ft
4-5 years
· Hops on 1 foot 2-3x
· Throws ball overhand and underhand at least 10ft
· Kicks a rolling ball
· Catches a large and small ball
5-6 years
· Rides a bike with or without training wheels
· Stands on one foot for at least 10 seconds
· Skips
· Hops on 1 foot at least 10 times
· Swings on a swing—pumping self