Module 1 Handout 1

Module 1, Handout 1: Social/Emotional Developmental Milestones

Milestone 1: Self-Regulation and Interest in the World

Age: birth to 3 months

Goal: To become calm and interested in all the sensations of the world

Parent/Caregiver: Interactions are predictable, comforting. Parent/caregiver provides cuddling and assists the infant in times of distress

Milestone 2: Forming relationships and Attachment

Age: 3 to 6 months

Goal: Building trust in caregiver, engage and relate, ability to woo and to be wooed

Parent/Caregiver: Be a secure relationship that survives negative feelings, build trust, and have predictable responses

Milestone 3: Intentional Two-Way Communication

Age: 4 to 10 months

Goal: Responsive to emotional cues, initiating interactions to get needs met

Parent/Caregiver: Provide “shared meaning”, create opportunities for success; narrate emotional experience for the child

Milestone 4: Complex Sense of Self (12-24 months):

Age: 12 to 24 months

Goal: How to interact with others to solve problems and discover a sense of self

Parent/Caregiver: Be an interactive partner, support child’s use of gestures to pursue interests and meet needs

Milestone 5: Discovering a World of Ideas (24-36 months)

Age: 24 to 36 months

Goal: Creating Ideas

Parent/Caregiver: Enter child’s make believe world, engage in long conversations about interests, desires, complaints

Milestone 6: Building Bridges between Ideas (36-48 months):

Age: 36 to 48 months

Goal: Emotional and abstract thinking

Parent/Caregiver: Encourage use of ideas; logical, emotionally meaningful dialogues

Reference

Greenspan, S. (1999). Building Healthy Minds. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.

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