Milestones

What a child can usually do at each age, and how wide the normal range really is.

A low wooden tray on a cream tablecloth holding three small carved wooden objects: a cat, a cup and a cow, with no letters or text anywhere.
Milestones 9 min read
Letters or sounds first? What to say to a 3- or 4-year-old

A child can know every letter sound and still not read cat. What is missing is not more letters.

Nine small wooden animal figures arranged in a single straight row along the edge of an oatmeal wool rug on a pale wooden floor.
Is this normal?Milestones 11 min read
My 2-year-old lines up his toys. Is that normal?

679 two-year-olds were watched doing exactly this. Ordinary play gets read as a symptom far more often than it used to.

Wooden tongs resting across the rim of a small ceramic bowl of pompoms on a wooden tray, with a second empty bowl beside it.
Doing it themselvesMilestones 10 min read
Can a 3-year-old use scissors? What has to work before the scissors do

The scissors are rarely the problem. It is the other hand, the one holding the paper, that decides whether the cut works.

A small wooden jar with its screw lid half off, next to a shallow oatmeal ceramic dish holding large natural wood beads and a short stiff lace, on a pale cream tabletop.
Is this normal?Milestones 11 min read
Is my 2-year-old's fine motor behind? What an OT checks that the toy aisle doesn't

The CDC asks two things of the hands at two. Pediatric OTs watch something else entirely, and it is not sold in the toy aisle.

A small round wooden tray on a pale wooden table holding a miniature cream ceramic pitcher, a small glass bowl of dry white rice, and a folded linen cloth.
Doing it themselvesMilestones 9 min read
When can a toddler pour their own water? (Rice first, and why)

Rice comes before water, and not for the reason most people give. The jug matters more than the age does.

A small wooden coin bank with a narrow slot in the lid, several smooth wooden discs scattered beside it, one disc resting half inside the slot.
Milestones 11 min read
Does my child need strong hands before writing? What actually predicts it

The study everyone reaches for on handwriting never measured hand strength. What it did measure is worth knowing before the next squeeze toy.

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