Self-Care Milestones
Self-care skills include all the skills you need to take care of yourself: eating, dressing, grooming, toileting, bathing, and anything else you do everyday!
A child's self-care skills depend on the development of both their motor (movement) skills and their cognitive skills (attention, self-regulation, doing multistep tasks). This is why OTs often look at a child's self-care skills, because it gives a lot of information on which motor or cognitive skills we may need to work on.
Children with neurodevelopmental diagnoses (i.e. autism spectrum disorder or ADHD) are often impacted in the development of their self-care skills. This may make just getting through daily routines quite difficult for the children (and their families!)
In OT, we will use standardized assessments to find out your child's current developmental level with self-care skills. Please see below for self-care developmental milestones. Remember that everyone goes through roughly the same steps, but at their own rate! We'll meet the child wherever they are right now to help them get to the next level: we use a play-based, intrinsically motivated approach at the just-right challenge.
A child's self-care skills depend on the development of both their motor (movement) skills and their cognitive skills (attention, self-regulation, doing multistep tasks). This is why OTs often look at a child's self-care skills, because it gives a lot of information on which motor or cognitive skills we may need to work on.
Children with neurodevelopmental diagnoses (i.e. autism spectrum disorder or ADHD) are often impacted in the development of their self-care skills. This may make just getting through daily routines quite difficult for the children (and their families!)
In OT, we will use standardized assessments to find out your child's current developmental level with self-care skills. Please see below for self-care developmental milestones. Remember that everyone goes through roughly the same steps, but at their own rate! We'll meet the child wherever they are right now to help them get to the next level: we use a play-based, intrinsically motivated approach at the just-right challenge.
Age |
Self-Care Skills: Typical Developmental Milestones Resource: Developmental Assessment of Young Children, Second Edition (DAYC-2) |
6-9 months |
|
9-12 months |
|
12-18 months |
|
18-24 months |
|
24-30 months |
|
30-36 months |
|
36-42 months |
|
42-48 months |
|
48-54 months |
|
54-60 months |
|
60-72 months |
|
