One of the first questions on every parent’s mind is: “is my child behind in development?” It’s a big fear that we have.
We want our kids to excel and be ahead of the curve, but we also worry that they are falling behind. But how are you supposed to know what skills they’re supposed to develop and when they should be fully developed?
Luckily, your doctor will keep you on track. Here’s how they assess your child’s skill development.
The ASQ Form for Child Development
There’s a questionnaire form that most pediatricians use even if they don’t actually hand you the form to fill out. They may just ask you all of the questions verbally during your well baby visits.
Toot’s pediatrician usually does verbal questions, but they’ve given me the form to fill out twice.
That’s how I found out about it. It’s called ASQ-3. The ASQ stands for Ages and Stages Questionnaire. I’m guessing the 3 means it’s the third edition.
How do you figure out if your child is behind in developmental skills?
The form is broken out into 5 categories of skills: Communication, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Problem Solving, and Personal-Social.
There’s also an open ended question section but we’re going to focus on the multiple choice categories of child development. Each section has 6 questions with answer choices of “yes,” “sometimes,” and “not yet.”
You’re going to calculate a score for each skill category of zero to 60 points. A yes answer is 10 points. Sometimes is 5 points, and not yet is zero points.
Your child doesn’t have to get a perfect score to pass. Each skill set has a range of developing on pace, needs some monitoring and improvement, and needs to be seen by a professional for guidance.
The ASQ form will give you a cutoff of what’s behind development for each skill for that age.
Where can I get the form?
I found most of them online for you! Here’s a list of PDFs from 2 months up to 5 years old.
You’ll be able to use this form to track your child’s development from the baby stage, to toddler stage, and preschool age. It’s all in months. So you’ll have to calculate that. 60 months is 5 years old. lol
How to Tell if Your Child is on Track with their Developmental Skills
Now that you have this information, what do you do with it?
Obviously, if your child scored below any of the cutoffs, consult with your pediatrician for more information. Don’t panic. But it’s a good idea to see if there are professional resources you need to help your child develop their skills.
If you answered maybe or not yet to any of the questions, focus on teaching those skills. Your child should naturally pick up new skills with practice. You just need to know what to work on.
I like to look ahead to the next one before I go into our well-baby visit. That way I know exactly what the nurse is going to ask while I’m trying to corral Toot and keep her from getting into stuff.
It also gives me an idea of what I need to be teaching her. Some of the problem solving questions such as “After you’ve shown her how, does your child try to get a small toy that is slightly out of reach by using a spoon, stick or similar tool?” I had no idea how to answer because we hadn’t tried it.
About a week before her appointments, I make an attempt to try everything on the list so I know how to answer.
What skill development areas are your little ones struggling with or excelling in?
Toot is very far ahead on her communication skills. At 16 months (when I originally wrote this) she said about 30-40 words. She does really well with fine motor skills too.
We need to work on her problem solving skills and gross motor skills. She tends to lag behind in those areas.
Let me know in the comments where your kids are in their skill development!
Ashley | Spit Up and Sit Ups says
This is really helpful! It’ll still drive my mommy fears into HIGH gear!
Niki @ Toot's Mom is Tired says
Mommy fears will never go away! It’s just a part of our being now. Lol
tineke - workingmommyabroad says
Ohhh perfect timing for this post, my 15month old doesn´t walk yet (and doesn´t make an attempt at standing up either unless we put him standing up) and everybody keeps asking if he´s STILLLL not walking and aren´t we worried…
Niki @ Toot's Mom is Tired says
Yeah my friend’s son isn’t talking yet and she was starting to worry but her doctor said he’s got several months before she needs to worry. Kids will develop skills when they’re ready.
Leah says
This is helpful! Now that my daughter is older, I don’t always stay on top of where she “should” be. The last time we went to the doctor’s, she asked if my daughter could hold a pencil correctly. Uh, no! She holds it in her fist still! I am not too worried about it yet, though 🙂
Elizabeth Doren says
There’s such a huge scale on development. Girl vs. boy, first vs. second, etc. convenient you have all the questionnaires in one place though.
Niki @ Toot's Mom is Tired says
Yeah all kids are different. Usually you don’t have to worry as early as you’d think. I was freaked out that Toot wasn’t crawling by a year but the doctor didn’t seem too concerned. Turns out she would just rather walk!
Ayanna says
Really helpful. After having 3 kids, including a set of twins, I’ve learned that although all the assessments are helpful, they shouldn’t be stressed over. Every child is uniquely different and a delay doesn’t mean they will not eventually catch up. All of my girls did not walk until well after 12 months, and my twins did not start using words until after 18 months. Yet I had awesome doctors who guided me and eased my fears. Now, all my girls are right in line with their current development level and exceeding many.
Niki @ Toot's Mom is Tired says
Yes exactly! My daughter didn’t walk until after 12 months and never really wanted to crawl. The doctor wasn’t too concerned. He just said work on it. Now she’s right on track with her gross motor skills!
Brittany says
I love this! I’m always comparing my kids development and I know it’s wrong!
Niki @ Toot's Mom is Tired says
I’m bad at comparing development. I know you can’t really compare one to another but it’s hard not to!
Danielle says
Great resource. I also think it’s important to note that all kids develop differently. While they may score as “behind” it doesn’t mean they will always be.
Kira | A Better Life Lived says
I never thought to look for these online and hated being blindsided with those questions that, like you, I had never tried and had no clue how to answer. I don’t worry too much about it, but it’s nice to be able to see what to expect so I can check on some of those in advance!
Jessica says
This is so beyond helpful. I have an 8 month old who sits for 30-40 minutes playing. Will stand with assistance. But REFUSES to roll over or get in crawl positions. We were given a lecture at her 6 month visit. Seems she’s lazy. She has the strength!
Niki at Toot's Mom is Tired says
Yeah my daughter didn’t crawl until after she walked. She was just lazy. ?