Children’s Growth and Development Checkups Specialist in Carrboro, NC

Children develop and grow in a mostly predictable way. They proceed through various stages and milestones in four categories, which include the following:

• Physical and movement – these are broken into fine motor skills, which require movement of small muscles, and gross motor skills, which focus on large muscles. Fine motor milestones include things like grasping and holding objects, writing or drawing and brushing teeth, or combing hair. Gross motor milestones include skills like sitting, walking, jumping, riding a bike, etc.
• Cognitive – how children think and learn. Cognitive milestones are skills like following instructions with multiple steps, counting, using objects and tools, telling time, and knowing left and right.
• Speech and language – these skills are about how children learn to speak and understand speech, writing, and reading. These milestones focus on speaking and making sounds correctly and understanding how to communicate with others.
• Social and emotional – these skills are all about how children interact with others, how they feel and behave, and how they regulate their emotions. Important social and emotional milestones focus on making friends and interacting with familiar and unfamiliar people, handling and expressing emotions, and learning how to empathize.

There are milestones for every age group of children for each of these categories, which are determined by the average age when most children master this skill. The range of normal age is quite wide, and sometimes children reach milestones earlier, sometimes later. A developmental assessment is an examination by a primary care doctor to determine whether an individual child is overdue to achieve any of these skills. If the delay is significant, the child may need support or interventions to help them catch up.

When assessing a child’s development, physicians look at what skills would be expected of a child of that age. For example, most children that are two to three years old can use sentences that are three words long, and most children that are five years old can use eight-word sentences. If a five-year-old child is using only three-word sentences, that would be considered a speech delay. 

If a child is significantly behind for multiple milestones, they may have a global developmental delay or a developmental disability. Developmental disabilities are groups of delays that are caused by conditions such as attention deficiency/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), brain injuries or irregularities, hearing or vision loss, intellectual or learning disabilities, and conditions like Down Syndrome or cerebral palsy.

Children are often able to catch up to their peers, but they may need interventions and support to help them. Generally, the earlier a delay is noticed, the easier it will be to catch up. 

Some of the support children may require include the following:

• Physical therapy
• Speech-language therapy
• Screening for hearing or vision problems
• Medication
• Behavioral therapy
• Accommodations at school
• Special education

A back-to-school check-up is a full physical examination that is done before going back to school each year. The child and family health history will be updated, immunization record checked, and a physical exam will be completed, including checking vital stats like heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure, recording growth in height and weight, checking throat, nose, eyes, and ears, test reflexes, posture, strength, and range of motion, and talk about developmental milestones and compare the child’s development to an average child of the same age. The doctor will also answer any questions or address any concerns of the child or parent.

At Carrboro Family Medicine Center, we do back-to-school check-ups, to help ensure your child is healthy, developing as expected, and ready for the next year. For more information, please contact us or schedule an appointment online. We are conveniently located at 610 Jones Ferry Rd Suite 102, Carrboro, NC 27510. We serve patients in Chapel Hill NC, Southern Village NC, Fearrington NC, Blands NC, and surrounding areas.