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Home › Articles › Development › Top 10 Toddler Milestones

Top 10 Toddler Milestones

Steps in Your Child's Development

By Melinda Copp

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Many moms worry about their child's development, especially in infancy. But as your child grows and becomes more active, you probably spend more time worrying about what they're getting into than whether or not they are achieving their milestones.

"I was much more worried about my daughter hitting all the milestones in the beginning and I read all the books," says Kristen Madden, a mom from Bluffton, S.C. "But the older she got, the less I read, and after she started walking I stopped being so concerned."

Still, your toddler's developmental milestones are important. Even if you don't have time to think about them until they happen, the following are the top 10 milestones your child will reach in his or her toddler years.

1. Object Permanence
Object permanence is an important cognitive developmental milestone, which means that your toddler knows that an object still exists even when it is out of sight. In infancy, your child would quickly forget a toy or other object as soon as you stuck it in your purse or put it away, which made wrangling the remote and the telephone from him a little easier. But when you try to hide something from an 18-month-old, he will wonder where it is and want to find it.
 
2. Talk, Talk, Talk
Most little ones start babbling "mama" and "dada" by 1 year of age. By 15 months, your toddler probably knows several words and loves using them. For many, "no" is a favorite because as they start getting into everything, "no" is a word they hear several times a day. By about 2 years, your toddler will be able to combine two words and say simple sentences like, "daddy home" and "me bye-bye." From there, your child's vocabulary will build every day, and the ability to combine more and more words will develop as well.
 
3. Climbing
When your toddler starts climbing on furniture and staircases, you need to upgrade your baby proofing. Dining room chairs, coffee tables, couches and staircases become your toddler's favorite things to explore. And try to keep a cool head the first time you see your little one on the verge of a fall.

"Don't panic when they are in a dangerous place," says Dr. Alexander Horowitz, a pediatrician at the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in Hilton Head Island, S.C., who gives presentations on child development. "You can avoid falls by carefully redirecting them." If you panic, you might startle your little one and cause him to stumble.

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