Developmental Milestones: Fine Motor Skills
0-1 Month:
Grasping Reflex: Child closes fingers around caregiver’s finger.
Releasing Rattle: Child holds rattle in hands for 5 seconds and drops within 3-5 seconds after
Tracking Rattle: 90 degrees from midline
2 Months:
Child Holds rattle for 30 seconds
Child starts to look at hands and perceive moving rattle
Child tracks moving objects beyond midline & twelve inches from nose
Tracks moving objects through midline from Left to Right and Right to Left
3 Months:
Child Moves Rattle-Shakes Rattle 5-15 degrees
Child extends arms up toward object. Not midline but upright. Reaches up with extended elbows toward object overhead
4 Months:
Sitting upright on caregiver’s lap, child reaches for rattle on table or in personal play space
Child reaches up with either arm toward midline to play with dangled toy
Child engages fingers on R and L hand at midline * Caregiver can support for arms to come to midline
5 Months:
Child plays on belly and reaches for string of toy and pulls toward them to play
Child touches, pulls, and grasps paper
Child holds small one” cube with whole hand for approximately 15 seconds.
Child can independently hold a bottle with one or both hands
6 Months:
Child moves rattle for 1 minute
Child manipulates more than one cube and holds in each hand
Child extends one arm fully while resting another arm to obtain rattle.
Upright-brings hands together to play with block at midline
Child can self-feed meltable solids *biscuits/cookies/crackers & drink from a cup supported by caregiver
7 Months:
Transferring cube- left to right or right to left to get an additional cube
Isolated digits use to touch small food pellet * puff sized object
Bangs cups at midline
Child holds one “cube with space between digits and cube. More refinement in grasping from whole hand use
Shakes rattle with a more deliberate 90-degree arch three times
8 Months:
Child now rakes for small food pellets *puffs and can pick up
Child can now crumble paper
Child uses thumb opposition and support from a surface to grasp small food pellets
Child can remove pegs from pegboard
9 Months:
Child bangs small one” blocks at midline
Child claps hands!
Child can independently feed self-using fingers and hold a spoon
10 Months:
Child holds multiple cubes or toys to obtain additional with Right or Left hand
Child gives objects to caregivers “Give Me Please!”
11 Months:
Child now holds cube with more opposition *open space and first three-digit isolation
Child Removes Socks
Child places small food pellets and or cubes in cup. *Follows direction to “Put in!”
12 Months:
Turns book pages
Stirs with a spoon
Turns containers over to remove contents
Child can hold and drink from a cup with minimal spilling
*Information taken from the Peabody Developmental Motor Scale by M. Rhonda Folio & Rebecca R. Fewell 2nd Edition
