Every parent knows that feeling. As our kids grow, we anxiously check their progress against the development charts in childcare books, looking for signs that all is normal. But surprisingly often, kids' abilities don't match the charts so neatly. All are important, and there are a multitude of important milestones within each. Sometimes the anxiety is justified.
Late development can indicate brain damage, spinal injury, neurological problems, and autism.
But in most cases, there's no problem at all, or one that's relatively minor and easily corrected. Noticing that a child doesn't crawl, pull up, walk, or talk on time is something that ought to make a parent concerned, experts say, but it's not a signal to panic. A wide array of benign factors can cause a child to lag for a time. Prematurity, for example, can cause lateness in several areas. In fact, it's normal for preemies to need as much as a year or two to catch up with their peers.