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Stages of Physical Development in Early Childhood

MaryAnn Bodansky

October 28, 2025

MaryAnn Bodansky

As a parent, you know your child best. If you’re worried about your child meeting their developmental milestones or you see them struggling to meet them, we’re here to help.

By educating yourself on the stages of physical development in early childhood, you can better assist your child if you think they may need additional help or support. Early action and intervention with a specialist—such as a pediatric physical therapist—can go a long way toward helping your child develop their skills and meet their milestones.

In this guide, we break down:

What physical development milestones are
The stages of physical development in early childhood
Frequently asked questions about pediatric physical therapy
How to get started with pediatric physical therapy

What are physical development milestones in children?

A developmental milestone is a specific skill that a child typically achieves by a particular age, according to Dr. Nora Bachman, PT, DPT. Physical development milestones include gross motor skills and fine motor skills.

Gross motor skills are movements that require your child to use their whole body and their large (gross) muscle groups, like those in their legs, arms, and core.

Some examples of gross motor skills include:

Rolling
Walking
Going up and down stairs
Jumping
Kicking
Throwing

Fine motor skills are movements your child makes using their smaller muscles, like those in their hands and fingers.

Some examples of fine motor skills include:

Using a spoon or fork
Buttoning a button
Pointing
Scribbling
Clapping
Holding a pencil

Your child’s healthcare provider should conduct general developmental screening tests at 9 months, 18 months, and 30 months, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). In addition to your child’s gross and fine motor skills, these screenings also evaluate their social, language, communication, and emotional development.

Pediatric physical therapists (PTs) and pediatric occupational therapists (OTs) can help with gross motor and fine motor skills. In general, pediatric PTs help with gross motor skills and pediatric OTs help with fine motor skills. However, the two types of therapists can overlap in what they may treat, Bachman says.

For example, a pediatric PT and a pediatric OT may help a child work on the same skill but approach the treatment in different ways or target different systems or parts of the body to bring everything together to help the child.

If you have any questions about what type of therapist your child should see, speak with your child’s healthcare provider, or reach out directly to a pediatric PT or OT for more information. They may suggest one or the other, or both.

The stages of physical development in early childhood

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers guidelines on developmental milestones from 2 months to 5 years of age. Here’s what you can expect to see with physical development in children over this age range.

Physical milestones at 2 months

The physical developmental milestones for 2-month-olds include:

Briefly opening their hands
Holding their head up when on their tummy
Moving both of their arms and both of their legs

Physical milestones at 4 months

The physical developmental milestones for 4-month-olds include:

The ability to hold their head up without support when being held
Pushing up onto their elbows or forearms when on their tummy
Grasping an object when placed in their hand
Bringing their hands to their mouth
Using their arms to swing at a toy

Physical milestones at 6 months

The physical developmental milestones for 6-month-olds include:

Rolling from their tummy to their back
Leaning on their hands and supporting themself while sitting
The ability to push up into straight arms when on their tummy

Physical milestones at 9 months

The physical developmental milestones for 9-month-olds include:

The ability to get into a sitting stance by themself
Sitting without any support
Moving an object from one hand to the other
Using their fingers to bring food toward them in a raking motion

Though crawling has been removed as a CDC developmental milestone, Dr. J.T. Doscher, PT, DPT, says many pediatric physical therapists still consider it imperative for development. He says army crawling is typically seen between 6 and 9 months and creeping (quadruped crawling on all fours) is typically seen between 7 and 10 months on average.

Physical milestones at 12 months (1 year old)

The physical developmental milestones for 12-month-olds include:

Pulling up to a standing position
The ability to walk while holding on to something
Picking up food or small items using their thumb and pointer fingers
Drinking from a cup with no lid if you hold it for them

Physical milestones at 15 months

The physical developmental milestones for 15-month-olds include:

The ability to use their fingers to feed themself
Walking a few steps by themself with no support

Physical milestones at 18 months (1.5 years old)

The physical developmental milestones for 18-month-olds include:

Walking by themself with no support
Feeding themself using their fingers
Drinking from a cup with no lid
Attempting to use a spoon to eat
Scribbling on paper
Climbing onto or off of a chair with no help

Physical milestones at 24 months (2 years old)

The physical developmental milestones for 24-month-olds include:

Walking up a few stairs (with or without your help)
Running
Kicking a ball
Eating using a spoon

Physical milestones at 30 months (2.5 years old)

The physical developmental milestones for 30-month-olds include:

The ability to take certain clothes off by themself, such as an unzipped coat or loose-fitting pants
The ability to use their hands to turn or twist things, such as a doorknob
Turning the pages in a book
Jumping with both of their feet off the ground

Physical milestones at 3 years

The physical developmental milestones for 3-year-olds include:

The ability to put on certain clothes by themself, such as a coat or loose-fitting pants
Using a fork to eat
Stringing together things like macaroni or oversized beads

Physical milestones at 4 years

The physical developmental milestones for 4-year-olds include:

The ability to hold a pencil between their fingers and thumb
Unbuttoning buttons
Pouring water
Serving themself food
Catching a large ball

Physical milestones at 5 years

The physical developmental milestones for 5-year-olds include:

Buttoning buttons
Hopping on one leg

Frequently asked questions about physical development in early childhood

What is pediatric physical therapy?

Pediatric physical therapy (PT) focuses on the gross motor development of children between birth and 18 years old, Doscher says. Gross motor skills are whole-body movements your child does, including:

Rolling
Crawling
Walking
Hopping

A pediatric physical therapist creates a personalized treatment plan for a child and their specific needs, so the length of time a child needs physical therapy will vary from person to person. Depending on the situation, pediatric PT may be done in your home, at your child’s school, or at an inpatient or outpatient facility.

“To the typical population, typical children from 0-5, it’s almost like you have a personal trainer that’s just helping you out,” Doscher says. “For someone who is impaired, has a diagnosis that’s restricting them, anything of that sort, pediatric physical therapy significantly impacts the outcomes of how functional that child is then going to be in their current stage of life and moving forward.”

Does my child need physical therapy?

According to the AAP, some signs your child may have a physical developmental delay include the following:

Your child isn’t able to perform a skill you believe they should be able to.
Your child used to be able to perform a skill, but now they can’t anymore.
Your child isn’t able to move or not move their body like children their same age.
Your child finds it difficult to perform a skill children their same age are able to do.

Bachman adds that torticollis (when a baby’s head is turned or tilted) may be another reason a child would see a pediatric physical therapist.

“I generally say there’s a reason if your child’s not doing the thing that most kids their age are doing,” Bachman says. “There’s almost always a reason, even if it’s not an underlying diagnosis or a specific condition.”

She says pediatric physical therapists provide the ability to give more input on:

What the reason might be
Whether or not it’s treatable
What treatment may look like
Whether the reason may affect a child in other areas of their life as they get older

Benefits of pediatric physical therapy

Doscher says pediatric physical therapy can help children move more efficiently and improve their quality of life. He says children 0 to 5 years old are “like sponges in everything, and giving them the tools they need with pediatric physical therapy at a young age will drastically change their life.”

When you partner with one of Village’s pediatric physical therapists, you can be assured that you’re working with a specialist who’s an expert in the physical development of children and who can help your child grow and develop their physical abilities.

Is pediatric PT covered by insurance?

Pediatric physical therapy may or may not be covered by insurance—it depends on the provider. For those providers that don’t accept insurance, cash pay may be an option.

With Village, it’s free to find and coordinate care for your family. Once you find the care provider(s) you wish to work with, session costs may vary depending on certain factors, such as the provider, the care plan, and your insurance coverage. Our therapists may be in-network or accept cash pay.

How to get started with pediatric physical therapy

If you think your child may not be meeting their physical development milestones, a pediatric physical therapist may be able to help.

When you partner with Village, you don’t have to go through the process of finding pediatric providers alone. Book a free consultation to see how Village can help your child receive the care and support they need to thrive.

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