Infant Development Milestones: First Two Years
Infant Development: First Year Milestones
First Year: The child typically creeps, stands, and walks if they have the opportunity.
Around three months, the child sits with support. By six or seven months, they sit with help, and by nine months, they can sit for about ten minutes.
Creeping (first) and standing/walking (second) are key motor skills.
Standing and walking typically occur between nine and ten months. The child may stand with support around eleven months and stand alone with help around twelve months. By thirteen months, they usually walk alone.
Sensorimotor Coordination
Reaching: At one month, the child contemplates an attractive object. At two and a half months, they start reaching. By four months, they raise their hand close to the target and may touch it. Around five months, they attempt to grasp an object and may succeed. Environmental conditions can affect this.
Affective and Social Development: First Year
Influence of Adults
Adults play two important roles in a child’s life:
- Addressing basic needs
- Providing opportunities for social integration
Children develop special emotional relationships with caregivers, which promotes regularity in cognitive and social development. These factors influence the rate at which development proceeds.
Attachment
Attachment is the special relationship established between the child and caregiver. It arises from the feedback loop between them and the child’s association of the caregiver with pleasure and pain reduction. Between eight to twelve months and two to two and a half years, if attachment is excessively intense, separation anxiety and uncontrollable fear may occur when the caregiver is absent or perceived as not meeting the child’s needs.
Characteristics of Secure Attachment:
- The child is comfortable playing when the caregiver is present.
- The child is easily calmed and comforted by the caregiver.
- The child is not afraid to show affection.
Second Year: Language Development
Universal Ratios
Universal ratios of the second year apply across cultures. Children tend to omit non-essential conjugations. Questions may not contain all the features of adult questions. One of the first features children develop in all languages is the ability to express an idea even if they cannot fully understand it.
Object Permanence
During the sensorimotor period, two directions can be observed:
- Construction of intellectual mechanisms
- Building a mental image of the world
To build the world, it is necessary to introduce an irregularity by attributing stimulation to objects. Construction of the permanent object involves several actions:
- Initially, no manifest conduct when an object disappears.
- At three or four months, the child looks for the object.
- Between four and eight months, the child attempts to find the object, especially if partially visible.
- Between eight and twelve months, if the object is hidden in plain sight, the child looks in the same place.
- Between twelve and eighteen months, the child may not look in the correct place due to invisible displacement.
- Between eighteen and twenty-four months, the child is capable of searching in order, considering invisible displacement.
Child-Caregiver Relations
The child needs to rely on social relationships. The first social relationship is with the mother, who provides care, fostering attachment. The child initially cares for people without distinguishing them. Between six and eight months, the child distinguishes the mother and tries to maintain contact through locomotion, hearing, or vision.
Establishing this relationship is essential for future relationships and overall development.
Circular Reactions
Circular reactions are actions that the child tends to repeat:
- Primary Circular Reaction (1-4 months): An action occurs by chance, and the child tends to repeat it, focusing on their own body.
- Secondary Circular Reaction (4-8 months): An action outside the child’s body has consequences in the surrounding environment.
- Tertiary Circular Reaction (12-18 months): The child tries to achieve a result by using the subject and repeats the action to introduce changes, exploring and searching for what works.