Child Developmental Milestones for African Parents: Birth to 12 Months
By Ibironke Taiwo. BNSc., RN. Freelance Health Writer. Medically reviewed by: Dr. Omo Oni, MD.
A black baby lying on her back on a colourful blanket playing with hanging toys.
A lifelong journey begins right from the moment your baby takes their first breath. This journey is filled with milestones that shape who they will become. As such you should be familiar and understand each phase of your baby’s development.
The functional sensory skills like audition, olfaction, gustation, and vision, that infants possess at the time of birth enables them to respond to external stimuli in their environment. It doesn't end there, your baby continues to develop and achieve new functions as they grow. The new functions developed as your baby grows are known as a milestone in child development.
Milestones follow predictable courses in infants and children worldwide, and later developmental skills build on previous ones achieved. As your baby grows from being an infant to a toddler to a teenager and into adulthood, he or she will undergo several milestones of development including physical, mental, communication, and motor skills, etc
Delays in your baby’s developments at any stage could inhibit further growth later. For this reason and more, you should be aware of age appropriate developmental milestones for your child. The earlier you can identify developmental milestone challenges in your child, the earlier you can get help.
This article will provide you with accurate information about the key developmental milestones observed in African children within the first 12 months of life, highlighting how cultural practices, environmental factors, and access to healthcare uniquely influence early childhood development across diverse African communities.
Developmental milestones serve as reference points for the awareness of your child’s growth and development from birth till adulthood.
They represent things that occur at every phase of your child’s life and include physical (crawling, walking, talking, siting), cognitive or higher order brain functions (recognizing faces & objects, thinking, problem solving) emotional (smiling, responding to names) and social developments (making friends, having relationships)
Developmental milestones should be important to African parents because they serve as checkpoints for parents and healthcare providers to detect potential delays in a child’s growth. For example, there are expected developments that should occur in a month old baby, when these don't happen it calls for early attention and support.
In as much as there are expected milestones, children develop at their own pace. Your second born may not take their first step at the same age as your first born took theirs. So, awareness of the range of developmental milestones should help you as a parent to know that individual differences in the normal growth of babies exist; thereby avoiding unnecessary worry.
From the moment your baby is born, they begin to grow from being a newborn to a charming toddler and it takes just 12 months for them to pass through this phase of development. This transformation can appear to you as a parent to happen so rapidly that it feels almost invisible; leaving you to wonder what to expect next and how to tell if your baby’s development is on track.
A month by month developmental milestone breakdown serves as a general guideline describing how your child grows and develops skills such as gross and fine motor, language, social & emotional skills.
These involve the use of larger muscles in the body to perform basic movements. They involve movements that your baby can undertake without thinking, like walking, running and jumping
They involve the coordination of small muscles in the wrist, hand, fingers and toes to achieve more complex motor movements like eating, playing and writing.
These are skills that help your baby to communicate their thoughts, feelings and needs with others. Babies communicate first through behaviour and sounds before building skills like speech, sign language and writing.
With this your baby is able to interact with others, maintain relationships, regulate emotions and respond to the feelings of others
These can be broken into the following:
The growth rate in babies at this period is usually rapid, which may cause you to question how your baby went from being a tiny newborn to being bigger. During the first three months your baby’s body and brain begin to adapt to the outside world as they start to gain weight and grow bigger.The following are the recognised development milestones that your baby may achieve during this period (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1: Baby’s developmental milestones from birth - 3 months. Click on image to enlarge.
At this stage your baby is really learning to exploit their environment. They try to master the use of their hands and tools around them. From 4 to 6 months old, here are the developmental milestones that occur in your baby (Fig. 2)
Fig. 2: Baby’s developmental milestones during age 4 - 7 months. Click on image to enlarge.
After learning that they can move around by rolling over. They now begin to figure out how to move forward and backward. During this period your baby exhibits the following developmental milestone (Fig. 3)
Fig. 3: Baby’s developmental milestones during age 8 - 12 months. Click on image to enlarge.
Culture being the way of life of a group of people is embedded with symbols, norms, values and beliefs that the people accept and are passed from one generation to another.
Culture plays an important role in a child's development. It influences the parenting, communication and child raising style a child experiences. All of which impact the child’s emotional, social, physical and communication development.
A detailed discussion of this is outside the scope of this article and will be considered elsewhere.
Baby Etienne's story
A woman had noticed that her baby (Etienne) didn't cry out loud. She informed her relatives but she was told the baby is a quiet one and may not like crying. She didn't take their word for it but headed to the hospital, which happens to be the healthcare facility I work in, to talk to a doctor about her concerns. Thank goodness she came. Her baby had a tongue-tie and was treated accordingly. Imagine if she had listened to her relatives only. That would have delayed the provision of care to the baby and probably have caused long-term development problems.
Even though babies develop at their own pace, significant delays or lack of progress should be addressed immediately by a pediatrician if you notice the following problems in your baby.
Do not wait thinking it's nothing and that the child will outgrow it. Speak to a doctor.
Development starts from birth and progresses through a range of predictable stages known as developmental milestones. These include physical, social, cognitive and language skills. Although developmental milestones serve as checkpoints, but parents should be reminded that every child develops at their own pace. Having a great knowledge of these milestones (especially in African homes) ensures that delays are detected and addressed early.
Your baby’s first 12 months is very important. It is at this stage that they typically progress from lifting their heads and smiling, to sitting, crawling, standing, and saying basic words. As such, month-by-month understanding helps you to be able to support them through each phase.
Cultural factors significantly influence developmental milestones through parenting styles, communication, feeding, and health beliefs. All of these impacts how children grow and relate with their society. During development there are certain concerns that may arise. Do not overlook these concerns as they may be underlying issues that need immediate medical attention.
Sources:
Graham K, Peter B, Diana K, Marcus R. Infant Developmental Milestones and Subsequent Cognitive Function. Annals of Neurology. 2007, 62(2); 28-136. doi: org/10.1002/ana.21120. Available from here.
Mawusi P. Parenting and Culture – Evidence from Some African Communities [Internet]. Parenting in South American and African Contexts. InTech; 2013. doi: 10.5772/56967. Available from here
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Concerned about your child’s development [Internet]. Last updated June 6. 2023. Atlanta: CDC; [Accessed May 11, 2025]. Available from here
The Sydney Children's Hospitals Network. Child development (babies 0–12 months) [Internet]. Last updated December 18, 2024. [Accessed May 11, 2025]. Available from here
Published: June 5, 2024
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