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Child Development & Early Education vocabulary · Developmental Stages and Milestones

Milestone

Meaning in child development & early education, with examples

/ˈmaɪlstəʊn/nounCore term

In child development & early education, milestone means: A skill that most children learn within a typical age range, such as smiling, sitting without support, walking or saying first words, used to follow a child's progress.

In Turkish: gelişim basamağı, kilometre taşı, gelişimsel beceri

How it is used

Usually plural and often called developmental milestones. Children reach, meet or hit a milestone, and professionals say a child is 'meeting milestones' or 'not yet meeting' one. Milestones are given as age ranges, not exact dates.

Example sentences

  1. Walking is a big milestone, and children reach it at quite different ages.

  2. The checklist covers milestones in movement, language and play.

Common collocations

  • developmental milestones
  • reach a milestone
  • meet milestones
  • language milestones
  • motor milestones
  • child developmentThe physical, mental, language, social and emotional changes that happen as a child grows from birth to adolescence, and the subject that studies these changes.
  • developmental delayA situation in which a child has not yet gained skills, such as walking or talking, within the age range in which most children do.
  • developmental screeningA short, standard check of a child's development, often with a questionnaire or checklist, to see whether a fuller assessment may be needed.
  • crawlTo move along on hands and knees, or on the tummy; many babies start to crawl in the second half of their first year.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Developmental Stages and Milestones

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