Let me start off by saying I have anxiety and OCD. My daughter is turning one this week and I’m not sure if it’s because such a huge birthday is coming up, but I’ve been more anxious about milestones this week. I’m a first time mom, never have been around kids. It’s difficult for me to determine what “counts” as a milestone.
For example, the throwing a ball milestone. Until I saw a video of my friend’s baby throwing a ball, I was under the impression hitting that milestone means a perfectly looped throw. I was worried my daughter wasn’t doing that but she definitely is, if that’s what’s considered throwing a ball. So I’m here to ask a few questions.
I know for sure she meets the following milestones:
-hands and knees crawling, cruising, standing independently from the floor, pincher grasp, holds her bottle and most recently, she’s able to drink from an open cup by herself, eats solids well
-showing/giving objects, reaching to be picked up, arms up when I say arms up
-her receptive language (what she understands) is amazing, definitely her greatest strength, she follows directions incredibly well. Give kiss, go get sleep sack, find story time book, close drawer, practice walking, peekaboo, wave hi, where’s toes/ear, she understands about 40+ words
-she babbles many consonants d, b, l, g, m, n, y, w. Very good at imitating sounds
-she can stack a few blocks on top of each other, really good at the shape sorter, stacks rings, can put blocks back, like uses her other hand to open the bag so it fits the block
The following I’m not so sure about:
-Talking: she says mama and dada and definitely knows who we are. She will often look at dada and mama and say them to us. But she also says them randomly too. Does that count? She says ba for ball but only if I ask her “what’s this?” Same thing for nana when I show her a banana. Also sometimes she mixes it up, like I’ll say what’s this to the ball and she says nana. But she can 100% identify ball and nana correctly if I ask her to find it
-Pointing: she points with her hand open. But in the last week, I’ve seen index finger emerging. It’s not a totally straight index finger but she’s been sticking it out, sometimes with her other fingers in a fist, sometimes with other fingers open. Does this count? She points to share, identify, request
-Waving: she waves by opening and closing her hands but does it when asked to wave or if someone waves at her. Doesn’t do it spontaneously but has in the past, usually to strangers not so much to me or dad
-Clapping: this one is stressing me out. She can bang two objects together but still isn’t really clapping. Recently I’ve seen her do one clap horizontally, but then she goes back to her vertical claps where she slaps one hand above the other hand back and forth.
When I say “clap” that’s how she claps. She will also clap my hands. I do think her clapping is emerging though since she seems more intentional with trying to clap her hands together as opposed to vertically
I’m sorry if this is obnoxious. I’ve been having trouble sleeping and just need to get it out there. If I see it as she’s not waving, pointing, clapping, talking at one year, I get very nervous. But maybe she is doing those things and I’m being a little harsh? I’m not worried about neurodivergence in general, but the idea of neurodivergence on the more severe side keeps me up at night.