Occupational Therapy Developmental Checklist
Birth – 4 Months & 5 – 6 Months
Birth – 4 Months
- Holds head in alignment
- Tracks an object
- Moves arms and legs when laying on back
- Lifts head a little when laying on belly, can prop on elbows
- Brings hands together when laying on back
- Props on elbows in prone with neck extension
- Rolls back to side
- Grasps rattle when placed in hand
- Likes looking at a human face more than other things
- Responds to a smile with a smile
- Looks into caregiver’s face and eyes with interest
- Reaches toward and touches toy
- Hits at dangling objects with hands
5 – 6 Months
- Sitting using hands for support and starting to sit independently
- Grabs both feet and hold when on back
- Brings feet to mouth
- Reaches to a toy when playing on belly
- Props on extended arms when on belly
- Holds and shakes a toy
- Puts fingers in mouth
- Holds hands open, rather than in fists, at least half of the time
- Smiles at self in front of mirror
7 – 8 Months & 9 Months
7 – 8 Months
- Sitting by themselves
- Retrieves a toy in sitting and returns upright
- Rolls
- Crawls with belly on touching floor
- Bangs a toy on the floor
- Passes a small object from one hand to the other
- Plays peek-a-boo
- Bangs toys together
- Feeds self finger foods
9 Months
- Starts to crawl on hands and knees
- Pulls to stand at a table
- Waves Bye-bye
- Releases objects intentionally
10 Months & 11 Months
10 Months
- Protecting reaction backward
- Maintains sitting for 60 seconds while playing with a toy
- Transitions to sitting from on belly
- Bounces while holding onto your fingers
- Takes 4 steps with support on your fingers
- Plays in standing at a table
- Stoops at table to retrieve object from floor
11 Months
- Cruising on and between furniture
- Pivots in sitting
- Standing for 5 seconds without support
- Walks 4 steps with 1 hand held
- Walks with a push toy
- Pushes or rolls a ball
- Drops small things, such as cheerios into a cup
- Throws things just to see what happens
- Removes socks
12 Months & 13 Months
12 Months
- Transitions to stand using hands and feet (bear stance)
- Walks 8 feet with one hand held
- Walks 5 steps independently
- Corrals a ball in sitting
- Grasps thick crayon or pencil in fist as if to mark, but may not mark
- Turns page of a cardboard book
- Helps to pull off simple clothing and extends arms and legs to help with dressing
- Puts objects into others, (puts blocks into a basket)
- Pulls off shoes
- Starting to drink from a straw
13 Months
- Rolls a ball 3 feet forward in sitting
- Flings a small ball while standing
- Enjoys looking at pictures in books
- Imitates adult by scribbling with crayon or pencil
- Pushes car along
- Brings filled spoon/fork to mouth
14 Months & 15 Months
14 Months
- Crawls up a few stairs on hands and knees
- Hands things to others
- Points at desired objects with index finger
- Makes a stack of 2 blocks
- Rolls a ball to you
15 Months
- Creeps downstairs independently
- Throws ball overhand
- Marks independently on paper with crayon or pencil
- Drinks from cup without much spilling
- Puts something in and then gets it out of a container
16 – 18 Months & 1.5 – 2 Years
16 – 18 Months
- Turns container over to pour or dump contents
- Turns small knob
- Gets spoon in mouth right-side up with little spilling
- Selects and puts square or rectangular objects into respective receptacles
- Puts large round pegs into pegboard
- Helps dress and undress self
1.5 – 2 Years
- Throws ball overhand a few feet
- Drinks from cup independently
- Turns light switches on and off
- Looks independently at picture books and turns pages
- Zips and unzips easy zippers
- Plays individually, explores environment to learn, will play beside a peer with little interaction
- Uses play dough, paint, and paper
- Scribbles without going off paper
- Builds a 4-6 block tower
2 – 2.5 Years & 2.5 – 3 Years
2 – 2.5 Years
- Throws ball underhand a few feet
- Climbs up jungle gym ladder and negotiates a slide
- Grasps thick crayon with thumb and fingers
- Puts square, round, and triangular shapes into form board
- Imitates drawing a vertical line
- Spontaneously draws strokes, dots, circular shapes
- Stacks 7-8 small blocks
- Hand preference established
- Presents arms and attempts to catch ball
- Identifies 4 body parts on self
- Makes small cuts (snips) on line with child-safe scissors and some help
- Grasps spoon with fingers and rotates wrist to bring spoon to mouth
- Washes hands by self
2.5 – 3 Years
- Throws ball 7 feet underhand
- Squeezes or pulls play dough apart
- Grasps pencil with thumb and fingers instead of fist
- Screws and unscrews jar lids
- Sorts objects that vary in size only or color only when shown how
- Undresses with help only for fasteners and pullovers with narrow necks
- Matches blue, red, and yellow objects by color
- Eats with a fork (with spillage)
- Catches ball tossed gently from 5 feet
- Completes a simple 3-piece puzzle of something familiar
- Pours accurately from one container to another
- Starting to play in a way that is more symbolic, dramatic, and interactive
4 – 4.5 Years & 4.5 – 5 Years
4 – 4.5 Years
- Performs a forward roll
- Draws a person with 3 different body parts
- Colors almost entirely within lines of 4-inch wide circle
- Dresses and undresses when requested without much help
- Copies a cross
- Puts socks on correctly
4.5 – 5 Years
- Pumps self on swing
- Copies and cuts a square
- Cuts easy foods with a knife
- Copies color/shape sequence
- Zips most zippers
- Traces around own hand with a crayon
- Completes simple dot to dot pictures
5 – 5.5 Years & 5.5 – 6 Years
5 – 5.5 Years
- Performs a few sit-ups
- Skips
- Performs jumping jacks
- Moves fingers in fine, localized movements when writing with marker
- Reads and writes numerals to 5
- Matches letters in a group of different letters
- Draws a face with mouth, nose, and eyes, and a person with 6 or more parts
- Copies first name, although letters may be large, awkward, or reversed
- Ties shoes (starts at 5, but may not be mastered until 6)
- Prints a few capital letters without copying
- Copies a triangle
5.5 – 6 Years
- Performs several sit ups well
- Performs several push-ups
- Able to perform the monkey bars
- Names most uppercase letters
- Brushes or combs hair well
- Uses simple tools, such as child’s screwdriver
- Prints all numerals 0-9 and all letters without copying
5 – 5.5 Years, 5.5 – 6 Years, 7 Years
5 – 5.5 Years
- Performs a few sit-ups
- Skips
- Performs jumping jacks
- Moves fingers in fine, localized movements when writing with marker
- Reads and writes numerals to 5
- Matches letters in a group of different letters
- Draws a face with mouth, nose, and eyes, and a person with 6 or more parts
- Copies first name, although letters may be large, awkward, or reversed
- Ties shoes (starts at 5, but may not be mastered until 6)
- Prints a few capital letters without copying
- Copies a triangle
5.5 – 6 Years
- Performs several sit ups well
- Performs several push-ups
- Able to perform the monkey bars
- Names most uppercase letters
- Brushes or combs hair well
- Uses simple tools, such as child’s screwdriver
- Prints all numerals 0-9 and all letters without copying
7 Years
- Able to rollerblade
- completes a 6- to 12-piece interlocking puzzle
- Plays simple card games, such as Go Fish
- Competitive Play: Participates in team sports and activities that promote competition with structured rules
Speech and Language Developmental Checklist
Birth – 6 Months & 7 – 9 Months
Birth – 6 Months
- Searches for speaker
- Recognizes own name
- Babbles
- Vocalizes feelings through intonation
- Frequently puts fingers, objects, clothing, pacifier into mouth for sucking and mouthing
- Breastfeeding and/or bottle feeding
- Starting soft, smooth solid foods
- Cooing: vowel-like sounds
7 – 9 Months
- Self-feeds simple, finger foods
- Babbles same sounds repeatedly (baba or mama)
- Produces sounds which are similar to t,d,n,f,v,z,ch,j,th,sh and s
- Makes sound while eating with food in mouth
- Reaches for object and looks for caregiver’s reaction
- Tolerates smooth, lumpy solids fed by spoon by 9 months
10 – 12 Months & 18 Months
10 – 12 Months
- Clears food off spoon with upper lip (eats lumpy, mashed foods)
- Feeding self with fingers
- Babbles using different sounds (nama)
- Takes turns vocalizing
- Will imitate others’ vocalizations or gestures
- Points/gestures and vocalizes
- Participates in joint attention activities
18 Months
- Uses 10-20 words including names
- Combines 2 words (all done, Daddy bye-bye)
- Names at least 5 common items
- Responds to “yes/no” questions
- Follows simple, one-step commands
- Points to body parts on self when names
- Retrieves objects from another room when asked
- Understands at least 50 words
- Asks for “more” and “what’s that?”
- Drinks liquids from an open cup independently with limited spillage
- Swallows with lip closure
- Has precise up and down tongue movement
- Eats table foods (includes easily chewed meats and cooked vegetables)
24 Months & 30 Months
10 – 12 Months
- Has at least 100 words in vocabulary
- Frequently uses 2-word phrases
- Uses some 3-word phrases
- Is at least 25-50% intelligible to all listeners
- Follows simple 2-step related commands (may still require gestural cues)
- Drinks from an open cup and from straw without dribbling
- Bites through a variety of food thicknesses
- Demonstrates verbal turn-taking
18 Months
- Has approximately 450 words in vocabulary
- Gives own first name
- Answers “where” questions
- Uses present progressive -ing
- Uses “no” or “not”
- Consistently uses 3-4 word phrases/sentences
- Identifies simple objects by function
- Is 50-75% intelligible
- Shares toys and understands simple locations (in, under, out, off)
- Responds to greetings
- Uses pronouns (my, me, mine, you)
36 Months & 40 Months
36 Months
- ls 75% intelligible to all listeners
- Converses in sentences
- Has 1000 words in vocabulary
- Follows prepositional commands (on, next to, under, etc.)
- Follows simple 3- step related commands
- Begins to use adjectives for color and size
- Asks one-word “why” questions
- Uses “what”, “where”, “how”, and “whose” when asking questions
- Uses “in” and “on” when asked “where” questions
- Beings to understand time concepts such as soon, later, wait
- Chews and swallows majority of adult food
40 Months
- Uses regular plural –s (socks, shoes)
- Uses possessive –s (baby’s bottle)
48 Months & 60 Months
48 Months
- Consistently uses 4-5 word sentences, with correct sentence structure
- Is 80% intelligible
- Verbally relates a personal experience/story
- Asks many questions including “who?” and “why?”
- Uses regular and irregular past tense verbs consistently and regular 3rd person
- Uses most pronouns
- Has 1500+ words in vocabulary
- Follows simple multi-step directions without repetition
- Uses contractions (can’t, don’t, I’ve)
- Identifies colors
60 Months
- Uses a variety of sentences with 6 or more words
- Has greater than 2000 words in vocabulary
- Uses most speech sounds correctly
- Is 90-100% intelligible
- Answers “how are things the same or different”
- Can carry a plot when telling a story
- Understands time concepts (yesterday, today, first, then, next)
- Asks question to get more information
- Inventive spelling when writing
