Child Motor Development

By Teri Roberts, DPT

Skill	Normal age range	Concerned time period	Quality of movement
Rolling	4-6 months	7 months not rolling any direction	Rolling should be both directions.
Sitting without assist	6-8 months	After 8 months	Child should also be able to transition in and out of sit by 8 months and play with a toy without falling
Crawling (on belly or hands and knees)	6-9 months	After 10 months	Crawling should be seen with both arms and both legs moving either on tummy or hands and knees
Standing (at a stable surface)	7-11 months	Child should place weight through feet with support for balance by 6 months	Child should be pulling to stand by 11 months and feel stable enough to hold on without loss of balance
Walking	11-13 months	After 17 months	As long as your child is taking steps with hand held assist and can push a push toy it is okay that they are not walking independently

As new parents many concerns arise with regards to motor movement. As a pediatric physical therapist I receive many questions from parents regarding their child’s ability to roll, crawl, stand and walk. The first year of life is such a dynamic time of movement and growth and new parents tend to be concerned with making sure their child is on target for gross motor development. “Normal” development is a very large continuum, with skills occurring at different times for each individual child. The continuum allows for a wide variety of ages to meeting skills, which makes determining normal and delayed development difficult to detect for a non-medical professional. The variations in development can be related to the child’s personality, motivation towards movement, experiences with different positions, the amount of tummy time a child is receiving, head size, muscle tone, etc. The time at which a child is developing a new skill is not as important as the quality of movement. However, it is much easier to see skill development than assess quality of movement, which is the reason we have specific ages that children are supposed to meet their gross motor “milestones”. The following are the averages of meeting gross motor development and the age at which a parent should be concerned.

Again, the above are averages for meeting milestones. The quality of movement is much more important than meeting the skills at a certain age.  If you, or your pediatrician, are concerned about your child’s development  - please call Kids Place for a free developmental screening to determine if your child  has a gross motor developmental delay.