- Identify infant and toddler physical and motor developmental milestones and ways to support development for all infants and toddlers.
- Describe the brain’s role in infant and toddler physical development.
- Recognize influences of physical growth and development.
Learn
Know
Physical Development From the Start
When healthy babies are born, some of their internal systems, such as their ability to suck, swallow, and breathe, are developed and functional. To support the best possible physical development, all infants require responsive care from loving adults, proper nutrition, and appropriately stimulating environments. Infant and toddler physical development can occur quickly; so it is essential to understand the various stages of physical development.
From birth, infants want to explore their world. While each child has their own schedule for development and mastering new skills, infants are often eager early on to move their mouths, eyes and bodies toward people and objects that comfort or interest them. They continue to practice skills that let them move closer to desired objects. Ongoing observation and frequent conversations with their families can help you learn what infants and toddlers are able to do, what they are learning to do, and in what areas they could use your support.
Infants develop physically from the top down, starting with their head and neck. At birth, an infant has a very difficult time holding up their head because the neck muscles are not strong enough to provide support. As infants and toddlers grow, their determination to master movement, balance, and fine- and gross-motor skills remains strong. Rolling and crawling occur as infants develop skills in using large-muscle groups. Grasping and picking up objects with fingers are signs of small-muscle skill growth.
Influences on Early Physical Growth and Development
There is no exact age at which all infants should be able to grasp objects or hold up their heads without support. Physical development occurs at different times for all children depending on many factors, such as the child’s unique characteristics, the family’s values and culture, and available resources. However, many infants and toddlers experience developmental milestones at similar times. The chart below outlines information about what infants and toddlers are likely experiencing and learning during different periods:
Examples of Physical Development Milestones – Infants and Toddlers
2 Months
4 Months
6 Months
9 Months
12 Months
15 Months
18 Months
2 Years
Keep in mind that the milestones above are simply the average ages at which specific skills are observed.
Certain conditions must exist for an infant or toddler to grow and develop. A young child’s basic needs, or physical needs, include:
- Food (nutritious and age-appropriate)
- Shelter (protection from harm)
- Warmth
- Clean air and environment
- Health and dental care
- Activity and rest
We also know that the way we ourselves were raised is important to our understanding of how and in what contexts children develop. The values and beliefs held by our family and culture contribute to our knowledge of growth and development.
Culture Affects How We See and Interpret Behaviors and Development
Understanding the practices, beliefs, and values of the families you support can help you understand how culture shapes so many parts of an infant’s and toddler’s development. Without this understanding, it is difficult to interpret the infant’s or toddler’s behaviors and development. For example, you may believe it is important to help toddlers learn to become independent and begin to feed themselves using their fine-motor skills. A family, however, may not view independence as important because they believe it is more valuable to depend upon one another.
Other influences on infant and toddler physical growth and development are:
- Prenatal care and development, including genetic inheritance, family patterns, exposure to drugs and alcohol, birth experience
- Prematurity (birth before the 38th week of development) and low birth weight may result in respiration difficulties, vision problems, feeding and digestive problems
- Temperament, or the ways an infant or toddler approaches his or her world
- Family’s composition, lifestyle, level of education, and housing
- Maturation, or the genetic or biological development that reflects a pattern of growth from conception through adolescence
- Developmental delays or disabilities, including health and medical concerns
Review the handout, Infant and Toddler Physical Development located below in the Learn activities section to learn more about important milestones in physical development, as well as variations in the rate of physical development of infants and toddlers.
The Brain’s Role in Physical Development
You can easily observe infants making movements with their bodies and refining their motor skills. Thanks to advances in research and technology, we can now also see how the brain changes and grows as young children develop. At birth, the brain is 25 percent of its adult size, and by age 5, it reaches 90 percent of adult size. Early-life interactions and experiences of infants and toddlers help them make sense of the world and form connections between different parts of the brain.
These supportive experiences and connections help improve coordination and strengthen muscles. Research tells us that as infants repeat and practice different movements, such as turning their heads or reaching for an object, they are building and maintaining connections between brain cells. The brain is busy making sense and learning from the experience.
It is important for infants and toddlers to have time for these new experiences and to explore the world around them with you, a trusted and caring adult caregiver. The repeated experience of safely exploring together helps infants and toddlers learn they can trust you, while also ensuring that their brains focus on learning, developing, and making connections. If infants and toddlers do not have nurturing and responsive adults to help make them feel safe, their brains will instinctually focus on survival and they will have less opportunity to create and strengthen connections for further skill development, including physical growth.
Supporting Physical Development for All Learners
Physical development, including gross- and fine-motor skills, consumes the interest of infants and toddlers as they practice learned skills and look to develop new ones. Healthy physical development is dependent on adequate nutrition, brain development, the central nervous system, muscles, bones, and the interactions and experiences offered to infants and toddlers. By recognizing developmental delays during infancy or toddlerhood, early intervention may be more effective than if the delays are not acknowledged until later in childhood. Below are some characteristics of possible physical concerns or developmental delays:
Signs of Impaired Physical Development - Infants & Toddlers
By 2 months |
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By 3 months |
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By 4 months |
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By 6 months |
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By 9 months |
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By 12 months |
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By 18 months |
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By 24 months |
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By 36 months |
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Delays in physical development may affect more than gross- and fine-motor skills. For example, if an infant is unable to smile at parents or lift their arms to be picked up, this could affect social and emotional development in terms of relationship building. Recognizing some of the delays listed above can be critical to a child’s development. The connections in a baby’s brain are most adaptable in the first three years of life. These connections, also called neural circuits, are the foundation for learning, behavior, and health. Over time, these connections become harder to change. Getting children the help they need is much more effective earlier in life rather than later.
If you have concerns about an infant’s or toddler’s physical development, be sure to speak with your coach, trainer, administrator and/or the child’s parent. They may wish to share your concerns with the child’s health-care provider. Early intervention can help children improve their abilities and learn new skills. To find your state or territory’s early intervention contact information, go to: cdc.gov/FindEI
For more information, including what to say when you contact early intervention and how to get support for your family, visit: cdc.gov/Concerned.
See
Do
How can you make sure you are providing age-appropriate experiences to support infant and toddler physical development? Take a moment to read and review the sets of guidelines on the following webpage from SHAPE America (Society of Health and Physical Educators, formerly known as the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, or NASPE): https://www.shapeamerica.org/standards/guidelines/activestart.aspx. Next, try one or more of the following activities with the infants or toddlers in your care:
- When an infant is awake and active, offer tummy time — lay the baby on the floor on his or her tummy while you interact with the infant. Provide stimulating and high contrast toys or pictures for the infant to look at. Because suffocation is swift and silent, remember to never leave an infant alone when they are on their stomach—not even for a second.
- Hold an infant or dance with a toddler to music. Toddlers can also swing colorful scarves in the air, dance or play maracas while the music is playing.
- Encourage imitation of gestures and other movement experiences in which mobile infants and toddlers can use their bodies to interact and play.
- Have toddlers experience kicking, catching, rolling, and bouncing balls.
- Encourage toddlers to scribble on paper with crayons.
Incorporate daily physical play into your daily routines. Infants and toddlers enjoy being active!
Explore
Review the handout, Scenarios – Gross and Fine Motor Development. Read the scenarios, then consider what you have learned throughout this lesson. Which characteristics or behaviors would be considered fine-motor skills and which would be considered gross-motor skills? Write these down and then think about possible ways you could support each of these young children. You can also review the handouts in the Learn section for additional ideas.
Once finished, share your thoughts and responses with your trainer, coach or family child care administrator.
Apply
Consider using the following resources in your family child care program. Use the Milestone Moments document to monitor the physical development of the children in your program. Parents may be interested in the Milestone Tracker Mobile App from the CDC, which they can access here: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones-app.html. The resource, What Grown-Ups Understand About Child Development, is a national benchmark survey sponsored in part by ZERO TO THREE. Read over the survey findings of this study and think about your work with families and the way you gather and share information with them regarding the physical development of the infants and toddlers in your care.
Glossary
Demonstrate
Allen, K. E., & Marotz, L. (2001). By the ages: Behavior and development of children pre-birth through eight. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.
Berger, S. E., & Adolph, K. E. (2003). Infants use handrails as tools in a locomotor task. Developmental Psychology, 39: 594-605.
Blakemore, C. (2003). Movement is essential to learning. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 74(9): 22-25, 41.
Bosco, F. M., Friedman, O., & Leslie, A. M. (2006). Recognition of pretend and real actions in play by 1- and 2-year-olds: Early success and why they fail. Cognitive Development, 21: 1-10.
Bourgeois, K. S., Akhawar, A. W., Neal, S. A., & Lockman, J. J. (2005). Infant manual exploration of objects, surfaces, and their interrelations. Infancy, 8: 233–252.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Developmental milestones. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html
Claxton, L. J., Keen, R., & McCarty, M. E. (2003). Evidence of motor planning in infant reaching behavior. Psychological Science, 14: 354-356.
Clearfield, M. W., Osborne, C. N., & Mullen, M. (2008). Learning by looking: Infants’ social looking behavior across the transition from crawling to walking. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 100: 297-307.
Comfort, R. L. (2005). Learning to play: Play deprivation among young children in foster care. Zero to Three, 25: 50-53.
The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC). (2011). The importance of early intervention for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED522123.pdf
Squires, J. & Bricker, D. (2009). Ages & stages questionnaires: A parent-completed child monitoring system (3rd ed.). Brookes Publishing Co.
Ward, M., Lee, S., & Lipper, E. (2000). Failure to thrive is associated with disorganized infant-mother attachment and unresolved maternal attachment. Infant Mental Health Journal, 21(6): 428-442.
Waters, E., Weinfield, N., & Hamilton, C. (2000). The stability of attachment from infancy to adolescence end early adulthood: General discussion. Child Development, 71(3): 703-706.
Zeanah, C. (Ed.). (2000). Handbook of Infant Mental Health (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.