Maternal & Newborn Atlas
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Developmental milestones and surveillance

During the first year babies start to learn skills they will use all their lives: moving, using their hands, sensing, communicating and playing with others. Babies do not all develop at the same rate, and a wide range is normal. MedlinePlus advises parents who are worried about possible delays to talk to their baby's health care provider.

  • Care topic
  • In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

This page rests on the MedlinePlus summary on infant and newborn development (public domain), which divides normal development into gross motor, fine motor, sensory, language and social areas and lists CDC's developmental milestones first among its links. The 2022 evidence-informed milestones paper in the journal Pediatrics was not fetched (this atlas treats Pediatrics articles as identity-only), so no milestone age, screening tool or surveillance schedule is recorded here. CDC's milestone pages were not read (cdc.gov returns HTTP 403 to scripts, per the plan's host checks). The recipient is the baby; parents and clinicians watch for milestones.

Scope

What development in the first year covers, and that the normal range is wide.

Life stages
  • Newborn
  • Infant follow-up
Care setting
Home and well-baby care.

Claims and evidence

Context Babies in their first year (MedlinePlus development summary)

Recipient
Child
Population
Babies in their first year of life and the families who care for them, as the MedlinePlus health topic on infant and newborn development addresses them.
Care setting
Home and well-baby care; the page is general health information.
Geography
Not stated (a US government health information site)
Life stage
Infants in the first year of life
Gestational age
Not reported
Postnatal age
Not reported
Follow-up
Not applicable (health topic summary)
Eligibility: 1 inclusion criterion; 1 exclusion criterion
Included
  • Babies in the first year of life
Excluded
  • Not stated in the source that was read

  • Description Guidance Certainty not assessed

    MedlinePlus says that during their first year babies start to develop skills they will use for the rest of their lives, and that normal growth of babies can be divided into gross motor, fine motor, sensory, language and social areas. It says babies do not develop at the same rate, that there is a wide range of what is considered normal, and that a baby may be ahead in some areas and slightly behind in others. Parents who are worried about possible delays are advised to talk to their baby's health care provider.

    Applies to Child
    • Babies in their first year of life and the families who care for them, as the MedlinePlus health topic on infant and newborn development addresses them.
    • Home and well-baby care; the page is general health information.
    • Not stated (a US government health information site)
    • Infants in the first year of life
    • Gestational age Not reported
    • Postnatal age Not reported
    Follow-up Not applicable (health topic summary)
    Certainty method
    Not assessed
    Limitations
    A plain-language health topic summary. It gives no ages for particular milestones and no screening schedule; the milestone lists it links to (CDC's page and Nemours pages) were not read. The 2022 evidence-informed milestones paper in Pediatrics, an AAP journal, was not fetched or read, so no milestone age or surveillance advice from it is recorded here.
    Last checked
    2026-10-15
    Next evidence check due
    Not scheduled
    Sources and citations (10)

    1. Supports Infant and Newborn Development (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The request URL infantandtoddlerdevelopment.html returned the page whose own address line reads infantandnewborndevelopment.html, which is used as the canonical address. The page carries no edition date.

      Locator
      Summary, paragraph 1, sentence 2
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic summary.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      8571e120195e03234a7a532cb8111efb9f4bf051d310e58133adb025076a1be5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

    2. Supports Infant and Newborn Development (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The request URL infantandtoddlerdevelopment.html returned the page whose own address line reads infantandnewborndevelopment.html, which is used as the canonical address. The page carries no edition date.

      Locator
      Summary, list item 1 (gross motor)
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic summary.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      8571e120195e03234a7a532cb8111efb9f4bf051d310e58133adb025076a1be5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

    3. Supports Infant and Newborn Development (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The request URL infantandtoddlerdevelopment.html returned the page whose own address line reads infantandnewborndevelopment.html, which is used as the canonical address. The page carries no edition date.

      Locator
      Summary, list item 2 (fine motor)
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic summary.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      8571e120195e03234a7a532cb8111efb9f4bf051d310e58133adb025076a1be5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

    4. Supports Infant and Newborn Development (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The request URL infantandtoddlerdevelopment.html returned the page whose own address line reads infantandnewborndevelopment.html, which is used as the canonical address. The page carries no edition date.

      Locator
      Summary, list item 3 (sensory)
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic summary.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      8571e120195e03234a7a532cb8111efb9f4bf051d310e58133adb025076a1be5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

    5. Supports Infant and Newborn Development (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The request URL infantandtoddlerdevelopment.html returned the page whose own address line reads infantandnewborndevelopment.html, which is used as the canonical address. The page carries no edition date.

      Locator
      Summary, list item 4 (language)
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic summary.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      8571e120195e03234a7a532cb8111efb9f4bf051d310e58133adb025076a1be5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

    6. Supports Infant and Newborn Development (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The request URL infantandtoddlerdevelopment.html returned the page whose own address line reads infantandnewborndevelopment.html, which is used as the canonical address. The page carries no edition date.

      Locator
      Summary, list item 5 (social)
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic summary.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      8571e120195e03234a7a532cb8111efb9f4bf051d310e58133adb025076a1be5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

    7. Supports Infant and Newborn Development (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The request URL infantandtoddlerdevelopment.html returned the page whose own address line reads infantandnewborndevelopment.html, which is used as the canonical address. The page carries no edition date.

      Locator
      Summary, paragraph 3, sentences 1 and 2 (part)
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic summary.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      8571e120195e03234a7a532cb8111efb9f4bf051d310e58133adb025076a1be5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

    8. Supports Infant and Newborn Development (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The request URL infantandtoddlerdevelopment.html returned the page whose own address line reads infantandnewborndevelopment.html, which is used as the canonical address. The page carries no edition date.

      Locator
      Summary, paragraph 3, sentence 3
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic summary.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      8571e120195e03234a7a532cb8111efb9f4bf051d310e58133adb025076a1be5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

    9. Supports Infant and Newborn Development (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The request URL infantandtoddlerdevelopment.html returned the page whose own address line reads infantandnewborndevelopment.html, which is used as the canonical address. The page carries no edition date.

      Locator
      Summary, paragraph 3, sentence 4
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic summary.
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      8571e120195e03234a7a532cb8111efb9f4bf051d310e58133adb025076a1be5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

    10. Background Infant and Newborn Development (MedlinePlus health topic)

      Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition The health topic page as shown on 2026-10-15. The request URL infantandtoddlerdevelopment.html returned the page whose own address line reads infantandnewborndevelopment.html, which is used as the canonical address. The page carries no edition date.

      Locator
      Start Here, first link
      How it applies
      MedlinePlus health topic summary (context for the claim).
      Retrieved
      Source effective date
      Not reported
      Source state
      Current
      Snapshot hash
      8571e120195e03234a7a532cb8111efb9f4bf051d310e58133adb025076a1be5
      Reuse basis
      MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content (fetched as ml-medlineplus-using-content.html, sha256 f70c0b8c67574e30377aab0c22b44038364a37e2e9f54a2ffa67597383b3de34) lists summaries on health topic pages as public-domain content. The page bytes are not committed. Short quotations with attribution.

Record details

Record id
maternal:developmental-surveillance
Content hash
2a1505ebbad54cc82d4ed92b027f47cdf55a6cb2396343181bf9383776923463