Infant Developmental Milestones
Guides & Resources
Baby Developmental Guides
Developmental milestones guides and e-books created by our pediatric physical therapy experts. Find our detailed resources below for tummy time and all things infant development.
Floor to Explore: Guided Milestone Play (0-4 Months)
A weekly guide to achieving early milestones through play, positioning, and tummy time! Pictures, videos, troubleshooting, warning signs, & more!
Tummy Time: Tips, Tricks & Troubleshooting
A handy dandy 1-page cheat sheet for understanding tummy time and making it more enjoyable for you and your baby.
Gross Motor Milestones for Infants & Babies
A 1-page cheat sheet for movement milestones all the way through walking. This is one you will want on your fridge or bulletin board!
Pediatric PT Guide to Baby Equipment
Our guide to pediatric PT-approved baby equipment! We help you make the best choice to support development (and what equipment to avoid!).
Let's Roll: Guided Play for Encouraging Rolling
COMING SOON! A hands-on guide to purposeful play to help your baby to roll back to tummy AND tummy to back.
(3+ months)
Let's Sit: Guided Play for Independent Sitting
COMING SOON! A hands-on guide to purposeful play to help your baby start and master sitting.
(4+ months)
Infant Developmental Milestone Check-Ins
Running out of ideas for how to help your baby roll, sit, crawl, stand or walk? We can help! We offer 1:1 developmental milestones check-ins to help with hands on activities and education for parents & caregivers of babies aged newborn – 18 months. Virtual and local (Phoenix) appointments available!
Toys for Development
What toys do you need for infant development? Just a few, mighty toys will do! Find a list of our favorite PT-approved toys for infant development by skill or suggested age.
As an Amazon Associate, Fit Family Physical Therapy earns from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you.
Visual tracking is one the first “motor” milestones to emerge with your infant! Visual motor development will drive head and neck movement next. Use high-contrast, noisy toys to stimulate baby’s visual system, working on side-to-side eye movement and sustained gaze in these early weeks. If you need more ideas on how to practice visual tracking, how to use these toys, or why visual tracking is important – check out our 0-4 month milestone guide!
Tummy time is essential to many aspects of your baby’s development: visual system, head & neck strength, shoulder stability, and early trunk strength. This all-important practice is a big precursor to future baby gross motor milestones and mobility. Toys used in tummy time should keep baby happy and motivate head and chest lift as your baby ages! If you need more ideas on how to practice tummy time, how to use these toys and why tummy time is important – check out our 0-4 month milestone guide or our free tummy time troubleshooting guide!
- High contrast cards
- Boppy (used for more than just nursing!)
- Crinkle books
- Musical arch
- Play gym
- Soft foam mat
- Water mat
- High contrast play mat
- Mirror (2+ months)
Rolling skills emerge at different times for every baby, but generally occur once baby has achieved good core strength and ability to weight shift. For rolling, we suggest toys that encourage reaching and tracking with head and neck. If you need more ideas on how to start laying the foundation for rolling – check out our 0-4 month milestone guide or our free tummy time troubleshooting guide!
- Musical toys (something novel to grab baby’s attention!)
- Ring toys (reaching)
- Play gym
- Soft foam mat
Finally your baby is upright! Toys used for sitting should be taller and heavier, at first, to keep baby focused on the ground and able to use hands on the ground for balance rather than bringing them to mouth! As your baby’s core strength improves the goal of toys in sitting is to promote fine motor development and social cognitive play. If you need more ideas on how to start laying the foundation for rolling – check out our 0-4 month milestone guide or our free tummy time troubleshooting guide!
- Soft stacker toys (soft ones work best for early sitters)
- Stacking cups
- Learn & spin
- Activity cube
- Spin wheel
Crawling toys should be anything that gets your baby motivated to move! We like musical toys or items that are parts of sets (blocks, puzzles, etc.), but also don’t underestimate the power of a kitchen utensil here!
Getting close to taking steps! Here are a few toys to encourage standing to play at a surface, or initiating those first wobbly steps. We prefer toys that get baby pulling to stand or walking on their own, rather than containers that “do” the skill for baby.
- Foam shape sorter (place on a standing-level surface)
- Activity center
- Activity table
- Wooden push toy
- Push & pull wagon (add weight as needed for early walkers)
- Sit-to-stand buggy
Developmental milestone help from physical therapists
Trusted, expert resource
Our pediatric physical therapists are experts in gross motor developmental milestones! They have treated babies of all ages and can answer all those "is this normal" questions all parents have!
Purposeful play
All of our resources help your baby achieve their developmental milestones through play! All with the tools you already have in the comfort of your own home.
Act early
Our resources help track your child's progress toward developmental milestones, bringing peace of mind for parents worried about pediatric concerns like torticollis, plagiocephaly, and other neurological disorders.
Empowerment
We believe in empowering our families with the tools to be active participants in their child's development. We love being a resource for helping your child reach developmental milestones!
What can we do to help?
Let’s chat! One of our board-certified physical therapists will email you to discuss any of your questions or concerns in any of our treatment areas.
