The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have updated their developmental milestone guidelines for young children. This is the first update to the guidelines since they were announced in 2004.
The goal of the updates is to make it easier for parents, caregivers and healthcare providers to catch conditions like autism earlier, as well as to give them a clear baseline against which to measure milestones. Plus, the organizations also raised the percentage of kids who normally meet milestones from 50 percent to 75 percent, indicating that most young children are developing in accordance with their age.
The CDC also added guidelines for milestones in 15-month-olds and 30-month-olds to help make the markers of social and emotional development clearer. At 15 months, a toddler should be clapping when excited, hugging their dolls or toys and showing you affection with hugs, cuddles and kisses. At 30 months, they should be using words like “look at me” to show you what they can do.
“This has been a need that is long overdue,” Paul Lipkin, a pediatrician, director of medical outpatient services at Baltimore’s Kennedy Krieger Institute and one of the 13 experts that worked on the updated guidelines, told The Washington Post. “We wanted to take a close look at all the data and milestones through multiple sources to come up with what we think is an accurate reflection of a child’s development.”
The experts hope that with the updated guidelines, parents, caregivers and pediatric healthcare professionals will be able to catch developmental delays early and start taking preventative measures sooner.
To learn more about the updated guidelines, visit CDC.Gov.
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