Your baby is not behind. Here's why.

Growth does not arrive in a straight line. A child can walk across a room and then ask to be carried for a week. They can have ten words and then go quiet before twenty more arrive. The pauses are part of it.

For the adults, the work is to pay attention without making the child perform.

The body before the words

Before language, there is reaching, pointing, pulling up, falling and trying again. Movement is how a child starts to say what they want and how they begin to understand what their body can do.

Give them room to practise. A safe floor, a few tempting objects and an adult who is close but not hovering is usually enough.

Let the floor be a teacher

Toddlers do not need a full calendar of activities. They need time to move, time to inspect an ordinary object, and time to be bored enough to invent something.

• Keep a safe, clear space where they can move without constant correction.
• Choose a few open-ended toys over a room full of noise.
• Let them try the thing themselves before you do it for them.
• Make mess somewhere it is safe to make one.

Talk, sing, narrate

Narrate your day. Name what you see out of the window. Sing the same song badly and often. The words do not need to be educational. They need to be yours.

Read books with pictures, pause for them to point, and let them turn the pages in the wrong order. Early language is built in repetition and warmth, not in flashcards.

"The point is not to arrive first. It is to feel safe enough to keep going."Weposhi Editorial

Compare less

Other children will always appear to do something sooner. The comparison is rarely fair. It rarely includes the nights, the temperament, the support, the language, the family, the body or the context.

Your child is not a race time. They are a person developing in a particular life. Notice what they can do that they could not do last month. That is the more useful measure.

When to ask

Milestones come in ranges. If you are worried about your child's movement, speech, hearing or interaction, ask early. Health visitors and doctors would rather hear a question than miss a concern. Trust your instinct, and bring examples of what you have noticed.

In the meantime, keep the floor clear, the words warm, and the pressure off.