Written by Swapna Rajan Koshy, DHA-certified Speech Therapist, MSc in Speech Therapy, Clinical Director at Esperanza Speech and Occupational Therapy Centre.
Most parents in Dubai have had this moment. You are scrolling through a parenting group at midnight, comparing your child to a cousin’s video call, a neighbour’s toddler at the building playground, or a classmate at nursery, and wondering quietly whether what you are seeing is typical.
Developmental milestones exist to answer that question with something steadier than comparison. They are not a race and they are not a report card. They are simply a guide, built from what most children can do by a certain age, that helps parents and paediatricians notice patterns worth a closer look.
This guide walks through the first five years of development stage by stage, covering communication, play, movement, and everyday skills, along with the red flags that are genuinely worth raising with a professional. It is written by the team at Esperanza Speech and Occupational Therapy Centre for families across Karama, Oud Metha, Bur Dubai, Zabeel Road, Trade Centre, and the wider Dubai community, many of whom are raising children in bilingual or multilingual homes.
What Developmental Milestones Actually Measure
| Key Insight: Developmental milestones track skills in communication, movement, thinking, and social connection that most children reach by a given age, offering a guide rather than a fixed timetable. |
Every child develops on their own timeline, shaped by temperament, environment, birth history, and the languages spoken at home. Milestones are not designed to label a child as ahead or behind. They exist to give parents and healthcare providers a shared reference point, so that a genuine concern can be identified early rather than dismissed with “every child is different.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through its Learn the Signs. Act Early. programme, describes milestones as skills that at least three in four children reach by a certain age, across four areas: social and emotional, language and communication, cognitive, and movement and physical development. This framework is widely used by paediatricians internationally, including in the UAE, as a starting point for developmental conversations.
The science behind why these early years matter so much is well established. Researchers at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University have shown that the architecture of the brain is built through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood, with the earliest years laying a foundation that later learning and behaviour build upon. Responsive, back and forth interaction between a child and the adults around them, sometimes called serve and return, is central to that process.
Birth to 12 Months: The Foundation Year
| Key Insight: By 12 months, most babies babble with changing tones, respond to their name, sit without support, and begin pulling up to stand. |
The first year moves quickly, and milestones cluster around connection and physical control rather than words.
By around 6 months, most babies:
- Know familiar faces and begin to tell strangers apart
- Respond to sounds by making sounds of their own
- Roll from front to back
- Reach for and grasp objects with an open hand
By around 9 to 12 months, most babies:
- Babble with strings of sounds, such as “mamamama” or “bababababa”
- Respond to their own name
- Play simple back and forth games like peekaboo
- Sit without support and begin pulling to stand
- Use a pincer grasp to pick up small pieces of food
A landmark study from MIT’s McGovern Institute found that it is the quantity of back and forth conversational exchanges between an adult and a young child, not simply the number of words a child hears, that most strongly predicts stronger brain response to language. In other words, narrating your day to your baby matters, but pausing to let them “answer” with a coo, a babble, or a gesture, and responding in turn, matters more. This is well documented in MIT’s research on conversational turns and children’s language development.
Watch for: limited eye contact, no response to loud sounds, no babbling by 9 months, or very stiff or very floppy muscle tone.
1 to 2 Years: Words, Walking, and Play
| Key Insight: By 18 months, most toddlers say several single words, walk independently, and can point to show a parent something interesting. |
This is the stage where language and mobility both accelerate, often unevenly.
By around 12 to 15 months, most toddlers:
- Wave bye-bye and shake their head “no”
- Say one or two words besides “mama” and “dada”
- Take a few independent steps
- Copy other children during play
By around 18 months to 2 years, most toddlers:
- Say at least 20 to 50 words and begin combining two words, such as “more juice”
- Point to show you something interesting, not just to request an object
- Follow simple one-step instructions without gestures
- Walk steadily, and begin to run
- Scribble on their own and drink from an open cup
Parent Scenario: A parent may notice their eighteen-month-old lining up cars in a neat row and getting upset when the order is disturbed. During a play session at home, some children like this go on to develop strong early interest in patterns and routines before therapy or preschool experience helps them broaden their play and flexibility over the following months.
2 to 3 Years: Sentences, Independence, and Social Play
| Key Insight: By 3 years, most children speak in short sentences, follow two-step instructions, and engage in simple pretend play with others. |
The two to three year window often brings a noticeable jump in independence and sentence length.
By around 2 years, most children:
- Point to pictures when named, such as “cat” or “ball”
- Say short phrases and sentences of two to four words
- Follow two-step instructions, like “pick up your shoes and bring them to me”
- Kick a ball and run with more confidence
- Sort shapes and colours in simple ways
By around 3 years, most children:
- Talk well enough for people outside the family to understand most of the time
- Engage in pretend play, such as feeding a doll or driving a toy car with sound effects
- Show affection for playmates and take turns in simple games
- Climb well, run easily, and pedal a tricycle
- Draw a circle when shown how
If a child’s speech at this stage is still difficult for unfamiliar listeners to understand, or sentence length has not grown much beyond single words, this is a reasonable point to raise the topic with a paediatric speech therapist.
3 to 4 Years: Storytelling, Friendships, and Fine Motor Growth
| Key Insight: By 4 years, most children tell simple stories, play cooperatively with peers, and can draw a person with two to four body parts. |
By around 4 years, most children:
- Tell a simple story using full sentences
- Say their own first and last name
- Play cooperatively, taking turns and sharing at least some of the time
- Catch a large ball most of the time
- Hop on one foot and use scissors with some accuracy
- Draw a person with two to four body parts
This is also the age at which sensory and self-regulation differences often become more visible, since children are expected to sit for longer periods, tolerate a wider range of textures and sounds, and manage frustration with words rather than physical outbursts. Families who notice ongoing sensitivity to certain fabrics, food textures, or noisy environments sometimes benefit from a conversation with an occupational therapist about sensory processing and daily routines.
If your child is struggling with school attendance, sensory sensitivities, or feeling overwhelmed by the school environment, learn more about the hidden connection between [school refusal and sensory processing in children].
4 to 5 Years: School Readiness and Complex Communication
| Key Insight: By 5 years, most children speak clearly in full sentences, follow multi-step instructions, count to ten, and manage most self-care tasks independently. |
By around 5 years, most children:
- Speak clearly enough to be understood by anyone
- Tell a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end
- Follow instructions with three or more steps
- Count to ten and name some letters and numbers
- Dress and undress with minimal help, and use the toilet independently
- Hop, skip, and swing without much difficulty
This stage overlaps closely with school readiness in Dubai’s nursery and Foundation Stage settings, where children are expected to follow group instructions, sit for structured activities, and communicate needs independently. Difficulties in this area are among the more common reasons parents in Al Karama, Oud Metha, and nearby communities seek a developmental assessment before their child transitions into a new school year.
Red Flags That Deserve a Conversation, at Any Age
| Key Insight: Consistent loss of previously learned skills, absence of a milestone well past its typical age, or a persistent parental concern are all reasons to seek professional guidance. |
Missing a single milestone by a few weeks is common and rarely meaningful on its own. Certain patterns, however, are worth raising with a paediatrician or therapist regardless of the child’s exact age:
- Loss of skills. A child who stops using words they once said clearly, or who used to make eye contact and gradually stops, should be seen promptly.
- No response to their name by 12 months, or limited response to sounds generally.
- Very limited eye contact or joint attention, such as rarely following a pointing finger or rarely showing objects to share enjoyment.
- No words by 16 months, or no two-word phrases by 2 years.
- Extreme reactions to textures, sounds, or transitions that consistently disrupt daily routines.
- Little interest in other children, or difficulty engaging in simple back and forth play by age 3.
- Persistent difficulty being understood by familiar adults past age 3, or by unfamiliar adults past age 4.
- A parent’s own instinct that something feels different. This is consistently one of the most reliable early indicators, even before it can be clearly articulated.
None of these signs confirm a diagnosis on their own. They are simply reasons to have a conversation early rather than waiting to see how things unfold.
Bilingual Development in Dubai Families
| Key Insight: Growing up bilingual or multilingual does not cause speech delay; children typically develop total vocabulary at a similar pace to monolingual peers, spread across two or more languages. |
Dubai is one of the most multilingual cities in the world, and many of the families we support at Esperanza are raising children across two, three, or more languages at home, at nursery, and with extended family. One of the most common concerns we hear is whether this is the reason a child is not yet talking.
Current understanding of bilingual development does not support that concern. Children raised in multilingual households typically reach communication milestones at a similar overall pace to children raised with one language, once vocabulary across all their languages is considered together. Code-switching between languages mid-sentence is a typical feature of bilingual development, not a sign of confusion.
That said, if a child is showing a genuine language delay, being bilingual does not explain it away, and it does not need to be “resolved” by dropping a language before starting therapy. A qualified speech and language therapist can assess a child across all the languages they are exposed to.
What Happens During a Developmental Assessment
| Key Insight: A developmental assessment combines structured observation, parent-reported history, and standardised tools to build a full picture of a child’s strengths and needs. |
Parents often delay seeking an assessment out of worry that it will feel clinical, frightening, or definitive. In practice, a good developmental assessment is closer to a detailed conversation supported by structured play.
At Esperanza, this typically includes:
- A conversation with parents about developmental history, family observations, and specific concerns
- Play-based observation of communication, motor skills, and social interaction
- Standardised, age-appropriate assessment tools where relevant
- A written summary of findings, shared in plain language, with practical next steps
An assessment is not a label. It is information that helps a family understand where their child currently is and what kind of support, if any, would help them build on their strengths.
Frequently Asked Questions
At what age should I first worry about a missed milestone?
A single missed milestone rarely means much on its own. Persistent absence of a milestone well past its typical age, loss of a previously mastered skill, or a strong parental instinct that something feels different are stronger signals worth discussing with a paediatrician.
My two-year-old understands everything I say but barely talks. Is this normal?
Strong understanding with limited spoken words is common and often resolves on its own. If expressive language has not caught up by around two and a half, an assessment can clarify whether extra support would help.
Does raising my child bilingually delay their speech?
No. Bilingual and multilingual children generally reach milestones at a similar pace to monolingual children when all their languages are counted together. A genuine delay should still be assessed, regardless of how many languages a child hears.
My child was born premature. How should I track milestones?
Use your child’s corrected age, based on their due date rather than birth date, for at least the first two years. Most milestone checklists, including CDC’s, recommend this adjustment for babies born more than three weeks early.
What is the difference between a developmental delay and autism?
A developmental delay describes a skill area that is progressing more slowly than expected. Autism is a distinct neurodevelopmental profile that can include, but is not limited to, differences in communication and social interaction. Only a qualified professional can differentiate between the two through assessment.
Where can I check my child’s milestones for their exact age?
CDC’s free, printable checklists cover every age from 2 months to 5 years and are a reliable starting point. You can find them through CDC’s Learn the Signs. Act Early. milestone checklists.
Can early intervention really make a difference?
Yes. Children’s brains are especially responsive to experience and support during the early years, which is part of why earlier support tends to build on itself more effectively than support that starts later. Early intervention is about building skills during this window, not correcting something that is wrong.
Do I need a doctor’s referral to book an assessment at Esperanza?
No referral is required. Many families come to us directly with a concern, a milestone checklist result, or simply a feeling that they would like a professional opinion.
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Every child’s developmental journey is different, and noticing a possible delay is not a diagnosis, it is simply information. If you have questions about your child’s milestones, communication, sensory development, or school readiness, the team at Esperanza is here to help you make sense of what you are seeing.
WhatsApp us at 00971 55 5241094 to book a First Steps consultation.
