Know

Physical Development From the Start

Healthy babies are born with fully developed systems that allow their bodies to function, such as the ability to suck, swallow, and breathe. In order to support the best possible physical development, all infants require responsive care from loving adults, proper nutrition, and appropriate and stimulating environments. Infant and toddler physical development occurs rapidly over the first years of a child’s life. It is essential that caregivers understand the various stages of infant and toddler physical development so that they can respond to children’s needs appropriately.

Infants are born to explore to the world around them. While each child will grow to master many of the stages in physical development on their own schedule, infants are often eager to progress from those innate abilities to further movement in their mouth, eyes, and bodies as they seek people and objects of comfort or interest. They continue practicing skills and building one form of physical movement upon another, step by step as they move closer to desired objects. Through ongoing observation and frequent conversations with families you can learn what infants are able to do, what they’re learning to do, and in what areas they need your support.

Infants develop physically from the top down, starting with their heads and necks. At birth, an infant has a very difficult time holding up their head because their 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 skill in using large-muscle groups. Grasping and picking up objects with fingers are part of small-muscle 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 head without support. Physical development occurs at different times for all children depending on many factors, such as a child’s unique characteristics, the family’s values and culture, and access to available resources. However, many infants and toddlers experience developmental milestones within similar timeframes of growth. The chart below outlines the approximate periods when many infants and toddlers will learn and experience these milestones.

This information was compiled from various sources including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ).

All children develop at different rates, so 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 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 Impacts How We See and Interpret Behaviors and Development

Because culture shapes so many parts of an infant’s and toddler’s development, you must understand the practices, beliefs, and values of the families you support. Without this understanding, it’s difficult to interpret the infant’s or toddler’s behaviors and development. For example, across cultures, the rates at which infants and toddlers begin to self-feed may vary. You may believe it is important to help toddlers learn to become independent and begin to feed themselves using fine motor skills. However, a family may be accustomed to assisting with feeding their infant until a later age. While the family may not have made a conscious decision about feeding as it relates to independence, it is likely that their family’s culture values more interdependence and collective support over other cultures which value independence and self-reliance.

Other influences on infant and toddler physical growth and development are:

• Prenatal care and development including, genetic inheritance and makeup, family growth patterns, exposure to drugs and alcohol, and birth experience
• Prematurity (birth before the 38th week of development) and a low birth weight may result in respiration difficulties, vision problems, feeding, and digestive problems
• Temperament, or other ways an infant or toddler approaches and interacts with their 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 in the Learn activity section below to learn even more about important milestones in physical development, as well as variations in the rate of physical development for 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. Infants’ and toddlers’ early-life interactions and experiences 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 develop stronger muscles. As infants repeat and practice different movements, such as turning their heads or reaching for an object, they build and maintain connections between brain cells. In essence, the brain is busy making sense and learning from experiences.

It is important for infants and toddlers to have time for these new experiences and to explore the world around them with a trusted caregiver. Repeated exposure to experiences with trusted caregivers allows children to feel safe and secure, and allows them to focus on experimenting, developing, and mastering new skills. The safe space that you create for their exploration ensures that their brains are able to focus on learning, developing, and making connections. If infants and toddlers do not have nurturing and responsive adults to help keep them safe, their brains are forced to focus on survival. This kind of stress on a child’s brain may make them more hesitant to engage in exploration, and experimentation; causing them to have less opportunities to create and strengthen connections in the brain that further their growth and skill development.

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 and developmental delays by various sources:

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 impact social and emotional development (e.g., relationship building). 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. Early intervention can help children improve their abilities and learn new skills.

Your trainer, coach, or administrator can help you learn more about the programs and services available to you, and the families you serve, that help assess and enhance physical development and learning. To find your state or territory’s early intervention contact information, go to: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/parents/states.html. And 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 to provide 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 (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, and provide stimulating and high contrast toys or pictures for the infant to look at
• Hold an infant or dance with a toddler to music — toddlers can swing colorful scarves in the air or jump on bubble wrap 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
• Use colorful mobiles over infants’ cribs so that they can try to reach and grasp. Have toddlers experience kicking, catching, rolling, and bouncing balls
• Encourage toddlers to scribble with crayons

Once finished, share your experience and what you learned with a trainer, coach, or administrator.