While all children develop differently, it helps to know if they are meeting typical milestones and how you can support their healthy development and learning.

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Below are materials to help you understand what’s happening at different stages of your child’s life and how you can help nurture their growth and development. All have been reviewed and approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Arizona’s Infant and Toddler Developmental Guidelines

First Things First and other key partners in Arizona’s early childhood system developed this detailed resource to help parents, families and other caregivers understand the appropriate development of children from birth to age 3, and also what they can do to support children’s healthy development and learning.

Recognizing that all children progress differently, these guidelines describe expectations about what infants and toddlers should know (understand) and do (competencies and skills) across the full range of development:

• Social and emotional development, which includes trust, self-regulation, and relationships with other children
• Approaches to learning, which includes persistence, curiosity, creativity, and problem solving
• Language development and communication, which includes listening and understanding, speaking, and literacy
• Cognitive development, which includes exploration, memory, and play
• Physical and motor development

The guidelines also explain what adults can do to support children’s optimal learning and development. For example:

More Online Resources About Child Development

• ZEROTOTHREE.org – the skills and behaviors you can expect from your baby at every stage from birth to 3
• HealthyChildren.org – more on developmental stages from the American Academy of Pediatrics
• CDC.gov - developmental milestones checklists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• PBS.org - a child development tracker for insights on the stages of growth, from PBS Parents