What is my child ready for now?
Enter her age, and one thing she already does if you like, to see what typically comes next and one or two ways to support it.
Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere. Where the book gives an expected age, it is the age by which about three quarters of children in Kinedu's data had the skill, so a quarter of healthy children arrive later. Kinedu data come from an internal analysis not yet published with peer review. They are based on what parents report, and this tool is not a screening.
When to talk to your pediatrician
Variation is normal; persistent absence is worth a conversation with a pediatrician. Take it to your pediatrician if a skill you would expect hasn't appeared over a stretch of months, if your child loses something she could do before, if she doesn't respond to her name or seek out your face, or if something has quietly worried you for a while. It is about pattern and time, not a single missed milestone.
In Chapter 4 of Big Bang Baby I follow the big cascades of the first five years, from head control to drawing, and ask you to follow them too: when one skill emerges, look for what it unlocks next. The full why is in Chapter 4. Read the Introduction free, or start with The range of normal is enormous.
Every milestone and age the tool uses
| Milestone | When, as the book describes it | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Head, sitting and walking | ||
| Keeps her head lifted briefly when lying on her stomach | By 2 months | Ch. 4 |
| Holds her head steady when gently pulled to sitting | By 3 months | Ch. 4 |
| Her head no longer flops when you shift her position | By 4 months | Ch. 4 |
| Sits up without support | Somewhere between 5 and 9 months | Ch. 4 |
| Walks on her own | Walking alone spans 8 to 18 months (WHO); first steps go from rare to common between about 8 and 13 months | Ch. 3–4 · WHO; Kinedu data |
| Hands and fingers | ||
| Swipes at a toy dangled in front of her (often missing) | Around 3 months | Ch. 4 |
| Reaches precisely | By 5 months | Ch. 4 |
| Passes objects from hand to hand and brings them to her mouth | By 6 months | Ch. 4 |
| Pincer grasp: thumb and index finger pick up something tiny | Matures around 9 to 12 months | Ch. 4 |
| Picks up a piece of cereal, inspects it and brings it to her mouth with precision | By 15 months | Ch. 4 |
| Holds a crayon in her fist and drags it across paper | In the second year | Ch. 4 |
| Builds a tower of three or four blocks | By the second birthday | Ch. 4 |
| Turns the pages of a book one at a time | By 31 months | Ch. 4 |
| Makes a mark and names it (“Mama”): a first representation | Around 3 years | Ch. 4 |
| Draws a person with at least two body parts; copies a square | Around 47 months | Ch. 4 · Kinedu data |
| Drawings become scenes: a body, fingers, a sun in the corner, grass at the bottom | By 5 years | Ch. 4 |
| Sounds and words | ||
| Cries and coos give way to sustained play with sounds | Around 4 months | Ch. 4 |
| Canonical babbling: “bababa,” “mamama,” “dadada” | 6 to 7 months | Ch. 4 |
| Proto-words and first words with a specific meaning | Proto-words at 12 to 18 months; first words go from rare to common between about 14 and 25 months | Ch. 3–4 · Kinedu data |
| Vocabulary speeds up, then two-word phrases | Around 18 months for many children; for others at 16, 24 or 30 months | Ch. 4 |
| Complex sentences (past, future, “if… then”) and stories with a beginning, middle and end | Preschool years (3 to 5) | Ch. 4 |
| Trust, feelings and self-regulation | ||
| Looks at your face before deciding how to feel about something new | Between 6 and 10 months | Ch. 4 |
| Begins appraising situations more on her own | By 18 months | Ch. 4 |
| Shows concern when a friend cries, shows affection on her own, names emotions in story characters | Around 25 months | Ch. 4 · Kinedu data |
| Waits her turn when playing | Around 33 months | Ch. 4 · Kinedu data |
| Separates from you without protest | Around 37 months | Ch. 4 · Kinedu data |
| Resolves conflicts with other children by taking turns with a shared toy | Around 43 months | Ch. 4 · Kinedu data |
| Cooperates with other children toward a common goal | Around 48 months | Ch. 4 · Kinedu data |
| Pretend and play | ||
| Simple pretend, like feeding a doll | Around 17 months | Ch. 4 · Kinedu data |
| Assigns roles to her toys | By 2 years | Ch. 4 · Kinedu data |
| Sustains imaginative scenarios with characters and plot | By 3 years | Ch. 4 · Kinedu data |
| Plays with other children using shared rules and negotiated roles | Preschool years (3 to 5) | Ch. 4 |
| Sleep | ||
| A six-hour stretch at night becomes a reasonable hope | By 4 or 5 months | Ch. 5 · sleep master class |
| Settles into two naps a day (three or more is common before 6 months) | By 9 months | Ch. 5 · sleep master class |
| Down to one nap a day | By around 18 months | Ch. 5 · sleep master class |
Sources
- Big Bang Baby, Chapter 4, "Cooling and Differentiation": milestone ages and cascades for infancy, toddlerhood and preschool; the note that expected ages are the age by which three quarters of children in Kinedu's data had the skill.
- Big Bang Baby, Chapter 3, "Inflation": acquisition windows for first steps and first words; "One Line Worth Drawing" (when to see a pediatrician).
- Big Bang Baby, Chapter 5, "The Invisible Forces": sleep landmarks and the ABC bedtime routine from Rebecca Spencer's master class for Kinedu; play and relationship practices.
- Big Bang Baby, "A Parent's Guide to the Kinedu Report": scope (milestones expected by 48 months) and limitations. Kinedu data come from an internal working paper not yet published with peer review.
- WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study Group (2006). WHO Motor Development Study: Windows of achievement for six gross motor development milestones. Acta Paediatrica, 95(S450), 86–95.
- Kurdziel, L., Duclos, K., & Spencer, R. M. C. (2013). Sleep spindles in midday naps enhance learning in preschool children. PNAS, 110(43), 17267–17272.