PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — The CDC recently updated its list of benchmarks your baby should be hitting, from 2 months to five years old. When a parent notices their child is behind, it often prompts them to seek intervention.
“The milestone tells a parent about where their child is in relationship to other children if they’re the developmental age,” said Scottsdale Pediatrician Wendy Kaye. “It’s a signal to us that a child was not meeting his milestones, so there may be some issues that would require either speech therapy, occupational therapy, or physical therapy.”
While the CDC said the checklist does not lower the standards, Speech Language Pathologist Danielle Rincon disagrees. “The new milestones are definitely a lot more delayed than they used to be, so what we would have expected from a 12, 15, 18-month-old are now pushed back significantly,” said Rincon.
“Some of the verbal skills at two years where we thought maybe children should be putting two words together, that was left for six months later, 30 months,” said Kaye.
Some Phoenix occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists worry the new milestones will keep kids from getting the help they need at a younger age. “Our community of speech-language pathologists are really in an uproar, are really concerned about it because it’s directly affecting our early identification of kids,” said Rincon.
The CDC said the milestone list is not a screening tool, but Rincon believes it helps parents and pediatricians discover when a kid may have a developmental delay. “In the past, we would have expected a 2, 2.5-year-old child to have 50 to 100 words, and now we’re expecting them to know three words besides mama and dada,” said Rincon.
Occupational Therapist Courtney Bunch said crawling indicates a child is on track and is an essential milestone parents should know about. She said it’s not part of the checklist.
“They’ll just think their child doesn’t have to crawl,” said Bunch. “They can just go into walking, and with that, they’re going to lose so many skills from the cognition standpoint to the motor standpoint.”
A spokesperson with the CDC sent an emailed statement:
“The updated milestones were chosen to reflect what most children (75% or more) would be expected to exhibit by specified ages to better identify potential concerns. In the process for review and revision, data was not available to support inclusion of all previous milestones, some milestones were kept, and some milestones were moved.”
“We’ll see many babies that never crawl, and they’re absolutely fine,” said Kaye. “I mean, some have college degrees and everything I followed.”
Kaye thinks the milestone update is a good thing and might prevent overdiagnosis.
“There’s a little bit of an extension in those developmental skills in children, so there’s less anxiety for parents,” said Kaye. “These milestones are just a cue for us. Early intervention has been shown to help significantly, so am I concerned, are we going to miss a few? Possibly, but then by the next time their visit comes up, if they’re not meeting that milestone again, we’re going to refer them.”
The therapists said it’s giving them anxiety, knowing some children could be missing months of intervention.
“I’m nervous for kids right now, for families,” said Bunch. “…I was just astonished by the changes that were made from a speech and communications standpoint to a motor and occupational, physical therapy standpoint.”
“Our job is to close the gap between the delay and what is expected, and what’s happening instead is we’re increasing that gap,” said Rincon. “We are putting that child at a massive disservice. They’re going to have a lot more difficulty when they go into kindergarten.”
The therapists and the CDC said you should speak to your child’s doctor if you notice any delays or have any concerns. You can learn more about the milestones here.
