Developmental Milestone Resources
for Early Head Start and Head Start Programs

CDC’s milestones and parent tips have been updated and new checklist ages have been added (15 and 30 months). For more information about the updates to CDC’s developmental milestones, please review the Pediatrics journal article and these important key points.

“Learn the Signs. Act Early.” has resources to help educate parents on the full range of child development and engage families in monitoring developmental milestones from 2 months to 5 years.

Mom using checklist with baby 9 mo

Using CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” can help you

  • Provide guidance and resources to parents when discussing developmental concerns.
  • Work with parents to become better observers of their child’s development and encourage them to take action on a developmental concern.
  • Meet Head Start Program Performance Standards.
    – Complement and support developmental screening.
  • Meet Head Start training requirements.
    – Earn 0.1 CEUs with the Watch Me! Celebrating Milestones and Sharing Concerns training

1 in 6 children has a developmental delay or disability. You can help identify children with signs of developmental delay, strengthen family engagement in developmental monitoring, and better support all children by…

  1. Using CDC’s milestone checklists [4 MB, 24 Pages, 508] and Milestone Moments booklet [3 MB, 60 Pages, 508] to
      • Enhance developmental screening by routinely tracking each child’s development
      • Empower parents to observe and track their child’s development
      • Increase your knowledge of signs of potential delay and what to do when there is a concern
  2. Helping parents to act on developmental concerns
  3. Learning more about monitoring each child’s development and sharing updates with parents with CDC’s FREE 1-hour online training, Watch Me! (cdc.gov/WatchMeTraining)

Find the FREE resources mentioned here and others at www.cdc.gov/ActEarly/Materials.

Learn the Signs. Act Early. is featured in these additional family engagement resources
Watch Me!
Print or view a handout (PDF) of this information