Milestones in Development – Zero to Three

Montessori environments nurture movement, language, and emotional development, allowing children to grow at their own pace through hands-on learning. In Montessori education, we look at milestones for babies and toddlers through three key lenses: movement, language, and social/emotional development. Each child progresses at their own pace, so while the sequence of milestones is common, the timing varies. Here’s a brief guide to supporting your child’s unique journey as they grow into remarkable young people.

Movement Milestones 

Physically, our infants and toddlers are experiencing rapid and intense changes. They are interacting with the world through movement and their senses. In Montessori, we call this the time of the “unconscious absorbent mind” because children are absorbing everything around them without a filter. Through movement, they begin to make sense of their environment, family, and culture. Regarding movement, we focus on three primary areas: myelination, equilibrium, and hand development.

Myelination

Newborns' movements are initially reflexive, like sucking and grasping. Still, they become more controlled as the process of myelination takes place, which allows electrical signals to pass more quickly from the brain to the muscles.

To support this development, give your child plenty of freedom to move. Keep them out of restrictive devices like car seats and carriers as much as possible and let them reach, grasp, and struggle a bit on their own. These natural movements are essential for building strong neural connections.

Equilibrium

Gross motor skills help children develop equilibrium or balance. Babies start by lifting their heads, rolling, and eventually sitting upright. Tummy time is crucial in assisting them to develop strong neck and torso muscles, which are the foundation of movement.

Most children begin walking and carrying objects at 12 to 18 months. Over the next couple of years, they refine their balance and coordination and run, climb, and jump with more confidence. Encouraging these movements is critical to their physical development.

Hand Development

Fine motor skills also emerge in the first few years. What starts as reflexive hand movements soon evolves into deliberate control. Babies initially use a raking grasp, which eventually becomes a precise pincer grasp around nine months.

From 10 to 18 months, children gain more control over their hands and fingers, learning to point, stack blocks, and scribble. By age three, they can easily use utensils for feeding and pick up small objects between their thumb and forefinger. Offering your child opportunities to practice these fine motor skills—like playing with blocks or drawing—boosts this essential area of development.

Language Milestones

As movement progresses from slithering to creeping to walking, language skills progress from babbling to talking. Movement and language development move in parallel until about six to eight months of age; at this point, one may dominate while the other often plateaus for a bit and then takes off a little later. Language development follows two threads: expressive and receptive language.

Receptive Language

Receptive language is how our children understand the language around them. Our babies love hearing the voices of caregivers, and they pay attention to their faces. Eventually, around four to six months, they begin to understand specific words, like no, and the meaning behind tones of voice. This is also when they start to play social games, such as “peak a boo.”

Over the next few months, our little ones start to understand simple commands and gestures. By about 12 months, they are able to understand instructions and go or point to familiar objects when named. From 24 to 36 months, toddlers are typically able to follow two—to three-step instructions and understand spatial concepts like “in,” “on,” and “under.”

Expressive Language

Expressive language involves how children communicate with the world. Early expressions come through body language and crying, which later evolve into cooing and babbling. Between four and six months, our babies vocalize pleasure and displeasure, babble with consonant sounds, put vowels together, and even try to repeat sounds they hear. In the six-to-eight-month range, our little ones continue babbling and start to drop unused language sounds for the native language(s) they hear. 

From eight to ten months, their babbling incorporates consonant-vowel combinations (e.g., “ba, da, ma”), and differentiated babbling may start to resemble actual words. They will also begin to use gestures such as pointing, waving, and reaching to show their interests, needs, and even things they do not want. Babbling continues from 10 to 12 months, and they may even combine gestures with words. 

After 12 months, we see an explosion of expressive language, with vocabulary expanding at an impressive rate. Children start by using single words, usually nouns, and this may include using one word for several objects. Then between 18 and 24 months, our children acquire eight to twelve novel words a month, and after about 50 words this increases exponentially. This is also when we hear children use two-word phrases with nouns and verbs. 

By the time they’re three, our little ones can use pronouns, ask questions, and string together sentences to communicate their needs and experiences.

Emotional Milestones

Emotional development, the ability to understand and express emotions, is primarily shaped by a child’s social relationships. During their first year, babies begin to notice emotions in others and respond to social cues. They may express their own needs and show interest in caregivers. By two or three years, children can better regulate their emotions and express a broader range of feelings.

It is important to maintain a calm, consistent environment to support emotional growth. Show warmth and affection, encourage the expression of emotions, and teach strategies for managing big feelings like frustration or sadness.

Social Milestones

Social development enables children to form positive, rewarding relationships with others. In their first year, babies are focused on bonding with caregivers. They learn to engage, gain attention, and participate in simple social interactions.

By 12 to 24 months, children start engaging in back-and-forth interactions and begin developing empathy. Parallel play—where they play alongside others but not directly with them—often evolves into cooperative play by age two or three. Children start sharing, taking turns, and communicating more effectively with peers at this stage.

You can nurture social growth by modeling healthy relationships, reading your child’s social cues, and facilitating interactions with other children.

Healthy Development

Our infants and toddlers are changing dramatically regarding their sense of self and their attachments. It’s important to remember that children follow a common sequence in their development, but not always a common timing. We offer these milestones as a reminder to remove obstacles to children’s development while also supporting their own unique path as they grow into amazing young people.