1. “Learn the Signs. Act Early.”
Follow each child’s developmental journey, and show parents the path, too!
*Greeting*
Today I’d like to share how you can follow a child’s developmental journey…and teach parents to spot important milestone moments. I’ll also highlight some free tools to help.

2. You’ll learn
Why tracking each child’s developmental milestones is important
About free resources to help
How you can help parents along the way
You’ll learn
about the importance of tracking developmental milestones;
that there are free resources to help you spot milestones in children;
and that there are easy things you can do to help parents learn more about their child’s development.

3. Developmental Milestones
Milestones are things most children can do by a certain age
How a child plays, learns, speaks, acts, and moves
You see these every day
They offer important clues about each child’s developmental health
Parents may need guidance in recognizing
Developmental milestones are things that most children can do by a certain age in how they play, learn, speak, act, and move - things like a 6-month-old responding to his name, a 12-month-old waving “bye-bye”, or an 18-month-old pointing out a plane in the sky. These are just a few examples of the many developmental milestones that give us important clues about how a child is developing for his or her age.
You see children display their milestones everyday. You see them learn, interact with their peers, and play with toys. You have unique insights into a child’s development that you can share with parents. Unlike you, parents may see only one or two children at a time, most often at home, so often they don’t know if their child is on par with other children their age or not. You can help parents recognize milestones their child shows them at home and help them learn about the milestones you see in their child at school.
All children develop at their own pace. Some will reach milestones slightly late or early.

4. Tracking Milestones Helps You…
Understand each child’s developmental progress
Determine if a child needs extra help or additional challenges in a particular area
Gather objective information for talking with supervisors and/or parents
Tracking and sharing milestones with parents routinely will make conversations easier if there is ever a concern
Tracking milestones can help you better understand the children in your care. It can also make you a better teacher by helping you see if a child needs some extra help or if he needs more advanced work in a particular area. For example, if a 2 ½ year old child already does puzzles with 3 or 4 pieces (a 3-year milestone), you could give him puzzles with 6-8 pieces.
Regular tracking gives you objective information about a child’s progress that you can talk about with your supervisor and the child’s parents. With tracking, conversations are based on a thoughtful, documented process, rather than on anecdotes or one-time experiences.
If you talk regularly with parents about their child’s developmental milestones, it will be much easier to bring up a concern if that is ever necessary.

5. Tracking Milestones Helps Parents…
Understand that watching for milestones is important
Better understand child development
Pinpoint any potential developmental concerns
When you track children’s milestones, you show parents the importance of watching for milestones and teaching them how to do it themselves.
When you share milestone checklists with parents, it helps them develop realistic expectations about their child’s development. Sometimes when parents don’t know when a milestone should occur, they worry that a child hasn’t met a particular milestone even though the child is too young to meet it.
Providing them with milestone checklists can keep them from worrying. For instance, if their three-year-old can’t read, they can be reassured because they’ll know from the checklist it’s not yet time for that milestone.
And tracking milestones helps parents to pinpoint any missing milestones that may be cause for concern. This gives them an objective basis for a conversation with their child’s doctor and sets them on the path toward getting help for their child.

6. Tracking Milestones Is Important
Tracking a child’s milestones gives you the chance to catch early signs of possible developmental delays so the child has the best chance to get the help he or she might need.
Perhaps most importantly, tracking children’s milestones gives YOU the chance to catch early signs of a possible developmental problem. That way, you can partner with parents so that every child in your care has the BEST chance to get the help he or she might need to have the brightest future.
Crawls

7. Free Milestone Tracking Tools
Developed by CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” program
Free, easy to use
Available in English and Spanish
A variety of options
To help you track milestones, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, through its “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” program, offers free, easy-to-use milestone checklists and other helpful information and materials about early development. There are several different types of materials so you can choose the format that best suits your needs. All of these materials are available in both English and Spanish.
These checklists can be used to talk about development with parents on an ongoing basis. If you talk about development frequently and show parents their children’s milestone checklists, parents will learn how important milestones are and will have a good base of understanding if you ever need to talk about a potential problem.

8. Translated Materials Translated Act Early materials
Translations available at:
Find Arabic, Bosnian, Burmese, French, Nepali, Somali Swahili Milestones Brochure translations at:
There are additional translated CDC’s Learn the Signs. Act Early. Program materials available on the website. Vermont has translated the Milestone Brochure into several languages spoken in VT – you can download them at this VT Family Network link.

9. Milestone Checklists Checklists for ages 2 months through 5 years
Milestones across 4 areas of development
Help identify causes for celebration or concern
Here’s what a Milestone Checklist looks like.
There are free milestone checklists for 10 different ages, beginning at 2 months and going through 5 years. There’s one for almost every age that’s recommended for a well-baby check-up. The lists include milestones across four areas of development (social/emotional, Language/communication, Cognitive [or thinking], and Motor/physical development). Celebrate with parents as you check off milestones a child has met. This is definitely something to get excited about! The fact sheets also include some red flags to look for that could be cause for concern, and tell you how to act early if you ever notice any of those red flags in children in your care.

10. Milestone Checklists: How to Use
Best of all - the milestone checklists can be downloaded and printed free at cdc.gov/Milestones so you can start tracking milestones today!
There are lots of ways to use milestone checklists. For example, an easy way is to print a copy of the appropriate milestone checklist(s) for each child in your care at the beginning of each school year.

11. Milestone Checklists: How to Use
Throughout the year, pay attention to how each child is meeting milestones and mark the checklist accordingly.
Throughout the year, pay attention to whether each child is meeting his or her milestones and mark the checklist accordingly. You can keep these in an easy-to-get-to place and make a quick “check” when you see a child reach a milestone.

12. Milestone Moments Booklet
CDC also offers a booklet that has all 10 milestone checklists together, plus more helpful information. This is called the Milestone Moments booklet, and here’s what it looks like.

13. Milestone Moments Booklet…
Everyday use:
Give each family a copy of the booklet
Review milestones and development tips with each family regularly
Discuss red flags if necessary
Use the booklet as a reference
Printing options:
Find a local printer for printing
Print directly from website using a desktop printer
This resource includes all of the milestones checklists from 2 months to 5 years and activities to help a child learn and grow. There’s also space at the back to write notes. It can be printed on a desktop printer, one for each child in your care. You can use it to review milestones and development tips with parents on a regular basis.
Keeping this booklet handy so you can use it as a reference would be helpful as well.

14. Milestone Tracker App CDC’s new Milestone Tracker app offers:
Interactive milestone checklists for children ages 2 months through 5 years
Tips and activities to help children learn and grow
Information on when to act early and talk with a doctor about developmental delays
A personalized milestone summary that can be easily shared with the doctor and other care providers
Reminders for appointments and developmental screening
 Although it is packed with parent-friendly features, this app isn’t just for parents!
Students can use it to better understand the skills and abilities of the infants and toddlers in their classroom and to engage families in monitoring developmental progress
Learn more and get information on downloading the app at CDC’s Milestone Tracker website. The app is available in the  App Store and on Google Play.
Training activity: 1) Download the Milestone Tracker App and enter information for one of the children you are working with or a young child you know. Try some of the developmental promotion tips and activities suggested to support the child you are working with and/or share them with the family. Write a paragraph reflection of how the Milestone Tracker App will be helpful to you in your work and/or how you plan to use it.

15. Milestones in Action
Use Milestones in Action to support observations and conversations with parents on age-appropriate milestones
Embed and share photos and videos on your website and on social media
Share photos and videos to support information given during trainings

16. Multimedia Tools
Post a button or widget to your website, blog, or social networking (find more information at

17. Milestone Widget Quiz
Question: What milestone is this 6-month-old showing?
Answer: She’s reaching for her toy! By the time most infants are 6 months old, they show curiosity about things and try to get things that are out of reach.

18. Watch Me! Celebrating Milestones and Sharing Concerns
A FREE, 1-hour online continuing education course for early care and education providers
Offers tools and best practices for monitoring development and talking with parents
Available for FREE credit at

19. Fact Sheets Tips for Talking With Parents Developmental Screening
Ideas about how to start conversation with parents if concerned
Things to remember when having a difficult conversation
Developmental Screening
What it is and why it’s important
Condition-specific fact sheets
There are also free resources to help you if you have a concern about a child’s development or you would like to talk with parents about developmental screening.
You talk with parents about the positive things a child is doing in class all the time, and that’s a conversation that’s easy to start. The “Tips for Talking With Parents” fact sheet has ideas on starting a conversation with parents about your concerns, along with things to remember when you’re having a difficult conversation.
The fact sheet on Developmental Screening explains to parents what screening is and why it’s important.
There are also basic fact sheets about specific conditions such as Autism and ADHD, available on the “Learn the signs. Act early.” website. If a child receives a diagnosis of one of these conditions, this fact sheet might be helpful for you, other Center staff, and the child’s parents. These fact sheets should be used with parents only AFTER a diagnosis is given by a trained specialist, and only if the parent shares that diagnosis with you. Remember, it’s your job to track milestones and the job of the specialists to do the rest, so NEVER suggest to a parent their child might have a specific disability.

20. Helping Your Students Learn And Grow
Tracking milestones is a great first step in developmental monitoring
Share your milestone tracking with parents, including celebrating when a child meets milestones
Talk with parents about the milestones they see
Act early and share concerns
Tracking milestones is a great first step in developmental monitoring, but there’s more you can do!
Be sure to share updates about milestone tracking with parents. Engage them in tracking and celebrate milestones with them!
Talk with them regularly and ask about the milestones they are seeing in their child or if they have questions about their child’s milestones at school.
Above all, if you have concerns about a child’s development - how a child plays, learns, speaks, acts or moves - share those concerns with his or her parents and encourage them to do the same with you. Because you’ve been having ongoing conversations about milestones, parents will be better prepared to discuss concerns and to share them with their child’s doctor and others who can assist the family in getting the child the help he or she needs.
Don’t wait! Remember, acting early can make a big difference in a child’s life!

21. Key Lessons
Understanding and tracking milestones are important parts of your job
CDC has free resources to help
Involve parents in tracking development
Acting early can make a real difference
Here are the key lessons covered today:
what developmental milestones are and why looking for them is so important,
where you can find free Milestone checklists and other resources to help,
how to make milestones part of an ongoing discussion with parents,
and the importance of sharing concerns with parents.

22. Visit www.cdc.gov/ActEarly today. “Learn the Signs. Act Early.”
Follow each child’s developmental journey, and show parents the path, too!
Visit today.
“Learn the Signs. Act Early.”
Follow each child’s developmental journey, and show parents the path, too!
Learn the signs and act early.
To order free materials, including those mentioned in this presentation and more, call CDC-INFO or visit cdc.gov/ActEarly.