Gross Motor
Lifting their head to look at you, rolling toward a toy, or walking over for a hug—Gross Motor development helps your child use their body to carry out their ideas. From rolling and moving to running, jumping, and balancing, everyday play lets you notice how your child controls their body, explores space, and gets ready for what comes next.
- Birth–9 months: movement opens up new views. Lifting the head, supporting the body, rolling, and sitting help your baby see and touch things that were once out of reach. A familiar face or favorite toy can be a meaningful reason to move.
- 9–18 months: more ways to get around. Your baby moves on the floor, pulls up using furniture, cruises, and begins walking independently. Crawling, cruising, and sitting back down may all appear within the same stretch of play as they adjust their balance under different kinds of support.
- 18 months–3 years: combining movements to play. Bending to pick something up, standing to carry a toy, and moving around an obstacle are no longer isolated actions. Your child increasingly chooses how to move, turn, or pass through a space based on what they want to do.
- 3–5 years: joining movement play with greater coordination. Balance lasts longer, and timing, direction, and force become better matched to the task. Moving their feet to catch a ball or leaving room for another child during play are both meaningful changes to notice.
Below are selected skills to notice at specific ages. Age is a developmental reference point; understand each skill alongside what you see in everyday life.
2 months
Holds head up when on tummy.
What to notice: During supervised tummy time, does your baby lift their head away from the surface to look at a person or object? First notice the self-initiated lift; lifting very high and holding it for a long time are separate changes.
How to support it: Lifting the head shows that your baby is beginning to control it and change their view. Wanting to see a familiar person or object gives the movement a natural purpose. Offer frequent tummy-time opportunities while your baby is awake and closely supervised. Use face-to-face responses to hold their interest, and give them space to lift, lower, and rest.
Keep in mind: Adjust support to their current state rather than aiming for a set duration.
4 months
Holds head steady without support when you are holding him.
What to notice: Unlike lifting the head during tummy time, this Skill asks whether your baby can hold their head in position while you securely support their body, without needing you to hold their head the whole time. Never test it by suddenly removing support, shaking, or pulling.
How to support it: Head stability shows that your baby is gradually taking more responsibility for posture as their body position changes. During ordinary holding and face-to-face interaction, provide safe, steady support. Notice how stable their head remains after they lift or turn it, then adjust your support accordingly.
Keep in mind: The goal is to let control shift gradually to your baby, not to test them by suddenly letting go.
Pushes up onto elbows/forearms when on tummy.
What to notice: Does your baby place weight through their forearms so that the head and chest rise a little from the floor? The change is not only a higher head lift; the upper body has gained a new, active form of support.
How to support it: Forearm support lets your baby lift more of their upper body and take in the world from a new position. Use people, sounds, and objects they enjoy to sustain interest in tummy time, and respond when they look up, vocalize, or reach.
Keep in mind: You provide a stable setting and necessary protection while leaving the active weight-bearing to your baby rather than arranging and holding them in position.
Responds to sounds in the environment by orienting head or body to understand the information in the event. For example, a young infant will turn towards an adult when hearing his/her sounds.
What to notice: Look for more than hearing the sound. Does your baby turn their head or adjust their body to search for it? The sound is giving their movement a direction.
How to support it: This change connects an auditory cue with movement: by turning, your baby can learn more about where the sound comes from. Offer natural opportunities to look for familiar voices. When they turn, respond with your eyes, face, and words so the sound and what they see come together.
Keep in mind: Leaving time to search is more useful than turning your baby's head for them or repeatedly making the sound louder.
6 months
Pushes up with straight arms when on tummy.
What to notice: Compared with forearm support, your baby begins to press through their palms, straighten the arms more, and lift the upper body higher. Notice how they bear weight themselves, not how their arms look after an adult places them.
How to support it: Moving from forearms to straighter arms asks your baby to organize the upper body around a new form of weight-bearing. The emphasis is active control, not perfectly straight elbows. Build on the interest your baby already has in tummy play, respond to what becomes visible or reachable after they push up, and help them change position when tired.
Keep in mind: Repeated self-initiated attempts build experience; pressing down their palms or fixing their elbows in place does not.
Leans on hands to support herself when sitting.
What to notice: When your baby's body tips forward, do they place both hands in front to support themselves? Their hands are still helping maintain the sitting position; this is different from sitting independently with both hands free to play.
How to support it: Hand support is one way your baby maintains sitting and experiences how a forward lean relates to the position of their support. Begin with adequate protection, notice how your baby actively uses their hands, and add or reduce body support as needed. Give them a chance to steady themselves while staying ready to catch a loss of balance.
Keep in mind: There is no need to rush the hands off the floor or use a fall as a substitute for adult protection.
Rolls over in both directions.
What to notice: Does your baby try to roll toward people or toys on either side? Notice how the shoulders, trunk, and legs turn together, not only whether they eventually reach the toy.
How to support it: Rolling changes body position and helps your baby approach things they want to see or touch in different directions. What matters is using the new movement for exploration. Follow your baby's existing gaze, reach, and turning intention, offer safe opportunities on both sides, and respond to their attempts to get closer.
Keep in mind: Leave room for your baby to choose the direction instead of repeatedly moving a target beyond reach.
Responds to sights in the environment by orienting head or body to understand the information in the event. For example, a young infant will re-position their body to be picked up when seeing a familiar adult.
What to notice: When your baby sees you reach out to pick them up, do they turn toward you, lean closer, or otherwise adjust their body? Unlike turning toward a sound, visible information is now helping the body prepare.
How to support it: Your baby is beginning to connect what they see with what will happen next and to prepare their body to participate. Make everyday signals for picking up, approaching, and interacting easy to see. Once your baby notices, leave a moment for a response, then continue based on what they do.
Keep in mind: The goal is to let visual information prompt an active adjustment, not to require imitation of a prescribed movement.
9 months
Gets to a sitting position by self.
What to notice: Notice the transition into sitting, not only whether your baby stays seated after you place them there. For example, while changing positions on the floor, do they push up, adjust their legs, and sit to continue playing?
How to support it: Getting into sitting links support, weight shift, and leg adjustment into a sequence. It is different from maintaining a position that an adult has arranged. Leave time for free position changes on the floor. First observe what your baby is already doing to reach a goal, then support only the part where they are genuinely stuck.
Keep in mind: Help them continue their own action rather than pulling both hands and completing the whole transition for them.
Sits without support.
What to notice: This Skill is about maintaining sitting. Can your baby sit, look, and play without leaning on an adult, furniture, or their hands? Keep it separate from how they get into sitting so you can understand which part has developed.
How to support it: Sitting without support frees both hands for exploration. Let an interesting object or interaction give sitting a purpose. Notice changes in balance when your baby reaches or turns, then adjust the distance of materials or offer support if needed.
Keep in mind: The goal is for sitting to serve play, not for your baby to hold a standard pose without moving.
Pulls up to stand.
What to notice: After grasping a stable support, does your baby actively adjust their legs and body to pull up? Being placed in standing and then held there provides different information from organizing the rise themselves.
How to support it: Pulling to stand combines hand support, leg effort, and body-position changes, while opening a new view from the floor. Follow your baby's wish to approach something higher, provide a stable support, notice which part they already manage, and help only as much as needed.
Keep in mind: Letting your baby organize the rise is closer to the developmental focus than placing them in standing.
12 months
Moves from crawling to cruising, learning new muscle coordination for each new skill, and how to manage changing ground surfaces.
What to notice: Watch how your baby moves among crawling, standing, and cruising. Once upright, they coordinate hand support with stepping. Sitting down or returning to crawling when tired does not erase the attempt.
How to support it: The move from crawling to cruising requires a new coordination of hands, feet, support, and balance. Leave both ways of moving available so your baby can choose how to reach a goal. When they begin cruising, offer stable support as needed.
Keep in mind: Gradually broaden experience across familiar surfaces without restricting crawling in order to teach walking.
Pulls up to stand.
What to notice: This is still pulling up using an object; the later age does not turn it into a different, more advanced form of standing. You can now notice it alongside cruising: once your baby gets up, do they also begin moving along the support? The two Skills do not need to appear together.
How to support it: Pulling up remains practice in organizing body support. Continue to respond to your baby's interest in standing, help them find a stable support when needed, and gradually leave more of the body adjustment to them.
Keep in mind: Once the Skill is familiar, let it serve a real purpose—getting closer and continuing to play—rather than arranging repeated standing drills.
Walks, holding on to furniture.
What to notice: While holding furniture, does your baby shift weight toward one side and then move a foot? Compared with pulling up, this adds maintaining support and balance during movement.
How to support it: Cruising lets your baby use their hands to help manage balance while the body moves. Offer continuous, stable support and follow the direction your baby wants to go. If they pause, notice what is difficult before helping.
Keep in mind: Do not suddenly remove the support in an attempt to prompt independent walking.
15 months
Moves from cruising to walking, learning new muscle coordination for each new skill, and how to manage changing ground surfaces.
What to notice: When their hands no longer stay on a support, your child has to adjust their own body to balance. Notice whether they briefly let go, take a step, and find support again when needed—not only how far they travel.
How to support it: Independent walking increasingly shifts balance control away from the hands. Use familiar people and meaningful destinations to support attempts, allow your child to let go briefly and seek help again, and reduce support according to what they actually do.
Keep in mind: An independent step and a return to support can both be part of learning; your child does not need to cross the whole stage at once.
Takes a few steps on his own.
What to notice: Look for independent steps without holding a hand or object. A short step or sitting down immediately afterward still counts as the behavior you observed.
How to support it: First independent steps connect unsupported balance with repeated stepping. Respond warmly when your child chooses to walk toward a person or goal, and let the contact, communication, or exploration at the destination be the natural result.
Keep in mind: A reachable destination and available help matter more than continually increasing distance.
Shows awareness as an accomplished crawler or walker of new challenges or dangers in the environment, such as steep inclines or drop-offs.
What to notice: Before an unfamiliar surface or change in height, does your child pause, look down, change how they move, or seek your help? They are using what they see to adjust movement; this does not mean they can judge every danger independently.
How to support it: Movement experience helps your child connect a visible change in terrain with whether and how their body can cross it. You remain responsible for making the environment safe. Respond briefly when your child notices a change and allow them to go around it or ask for support.
Keep in mind: The goal is to support noticing, pausing, adjusting, and seeking help—not to hand a toddler responsibility for danger assessment.
18 months
Walks without holding on to anyone or anything.
What to notice: Look beyond the first few steps. In everyday life, does your child now use unsupported walking as a practical way to get somewhere, such as walking to a toy or family member?
How to support it: As independent walking becomes useful in daily life, your child continues to adjust it for different purposes and surfaces. Build practice into places they want to go and things they want to do, stay close for safety, and introduce environmental variation gradually.
Keep in mind: Experiences of moving, stopping, and setting off again matter more than treating speed or distance as the only form of progress.
Climbs on and off a couch or chair without help.
What to notice: Watch how your child manages a change in height: where they place their hands, how they lift a leg, and how they get back down. Climbing up does not mean they have already learned a safe way down.
How to support it: Climbing on and off furniture coordinates support, body position, and height, and going up may require a different approach from coming down. Use a safe, low, stable setting. Observe first, then demonstrate or help with the part that is unfamiliar. Reduce assistance gradually while protecting your child's opportunity to adjust.
Keep in mind: Encouraging independence never removes the adult's responsibility for safety.
2 years (24 months)
Gains control of a variety of postures and movements for a purpose, including stooping, going from sitting to standing, running, and jumping.
What to notice: Watch how your child combines movement around one purpose—for example, bending to pick up a toy, standing, and carrying it to you. The actions listed are examples, not a requirement that every one be fully mastered at this age.
How to support it: This Skill is about choosing and linking positions to accomplish something, rather than completing isolated movements. Offer everyday chances to participate and move independently. Let your child try their own sequence, then use a short prompt or demonstration if the current approach does not work.
Keep in mind: The key change is that movement increasingly serves what your child wants to do.
Walks (not climbs) up a few stairs with or without help.
What to notice: With support, can your child lift a foot and bring their body up one step? The focus is stepping with the feet, not alternating feet or walking up an entire flight.
How to support it: Stepping up combines lifting one foot, moving the body upward, and maintaining support. On safe stairs, provide stable assistance while letting your child do the parts they can manage. Adjust support gradually based on what you see.
Keep in mind: A few self-initiated steps are enough; alternating feet and completing a full flight are not extra requirements.
Maintains balance and posture while seated when working with clay, blocks, or markers or looking at a book.
What to notice: When your child reaches for materials or turns to talk with you, can their body remain seated? Notice how balance serves the activity in their hands, not whether they can sit perfectly still for a long time.
How to support it: Seated play requires the body to adjust as your child reaches, turns, and works with materials. Provide an appropriate seat and place materials within useful reach. Let your child change posture as the task changes; when balance is difficult, adjust the setting or support first.
Keep in mind: The goal is coordination between posture and activity, not repeated reminders to sit up straight.
2½ years (30 months)
Walks and runs, adjusting speed or direction depending on the situation.
What to notice: When a target moves or the route changes, does your child slow down, turn, or choose another path? More than running fast, notice whether their steps adjust to what they see.
How to support it: Changing speed and direction means organizing movement around a goal and the situation rather than simply being able to walk or run. Add manageable changes within familiar play, give your child time to try and adjust, and acknowledge slowing, going around, or turning.
Keep in mind: If needed, use a brief prompt to draw attention to the change rather than directing every step or focusing only on whether they caught up.
Experiments with different ways of moving the body, such as dancing around the room.
What to notice: Does your child try a way of moving that differs from their usual one, such as tiptoeing, crouch-walking, or turning with music? The focus is experimentation, not a polished or accurate movement.
How to support it: Your child is beginning to treat familiar movements as something they can vary and combine. Use a simple demonstration to open a possibility, then imitate and respond to movements your child invents. Value the willingness to try different approaches over accurate copying.
Keep in mind: Add difficulty or repetition according to what your child is ready to explore.
Shows understanding of what size openings are needed for their body to move through.
What to notice: Before moving through an opening, does your child look at its height and width and decide to bend, turn sideways, or take another route? They do not need to name a measurement; the body adjustment is observable evidence.
How to support it: Passing through a space asks your child to relate the opening's size to their own body. Offer safe experiences with clearly different spaces, let them look and try first, then use a small prompt to draw attention to width or height.
Keep in mind: Leave the comparison and adjustment to your child rather than giving the spatial answer in advance; safety remains the adult's responsibility.
3½ years (42 months)
Balances, such as on one leg or a beam, for short periods with some assistance.
What to notice: When your child lifts one foot, how do the supporting leg, trunk, and arms work to keep the body upright? Holding on is allowed in this Skill; you do not need to set a target number of independent seconds.
How to support it: Brief balance requires the supporting leg, trunk, and arms to coordinate. Your help can keep the difficulty manageable while your child experiences that coordination. Demonstrate and invite imitation, then offer support based on the adjustments you see.
Keep in mind: Reduce help as control increases so your child can find balance, without turning time or height into a performance test.
Engages in physical activity that requires strength and stamina for at least brief periods.
What to notice: Can your child keep using effort during a short game, such as pushing, pulling, or carrying? Notice sustained participation rather than the largest amount of force they can produce, and consider engagement together with signs of fatigue.
How to support it: Strength and stamina appear here as participating in a brief period of effort, not as one maximum exertion. Start with physical play your child wants to join, alternate repetition with rest, and respond to their effort and wish to continue.
Keep in mind: Building experience matters more than asking them to persist longer; adjust activity to their current state.
Somewhat aware of own body, space, and relationship to other objects.
What to notice: Beyond whether your child can fit through an opening, notice whether they account for the distance between their body and nearby objects—for example, seeing a chair behind them before turning and changing position.
How to support it: Awareness of the body in space helps your child connect what they see with how they move. During real movement, help them notice a specific spatial change before or after acting, then let them adjust their own position.
Keep in mind: The aim is not memorizing direction words; it is accumulating experience in how the body and environment work together.
4 years (48 months)
Performs some skills, such as jumping for height and hopping, but these skills may not be consistently demonstrated.
What to notice: Does your child try to push off, leave the ground, and land, or make a short hop on one foot? “Not consistently” matters: doing it once does not mean they can reproduce it every time.
How to support it: New movements may appear one time and disappear the next while coordination is still becoming more reliable. Offer accessible demonstrations and repeated chances, respond to the part your child can already do, and lower the difficulty or add support when they get stuck.
Keep in mind: The goal is experience with movement control, not turning one success into a new requirement.
Catches a large ball most of the time.
What to notice: As the ball approaches, does your child prepare their hands, adjust where they stand, and close their arms at an appropriate time? Catching uses the whole body's position and the ball's direction, not only arm strength.
How to support it: Catching requires your child to coordinate the ball's direction and speed with body position and hand movement. Send the ball slowly enough for them to judge it, let them prepare and adjust, then change support based on the attempt.
Keep in mind: Notice improvements in watching, moving, and gathering the ball rather than simply asking for more successful catches in a row.
4½ years (54 months)
Balances, such as on one leg or on a beam, for longer periods of time both when standing still and when moving from one position to another.
What to notice: In addition to standing briefly, can your child preserve balance as movement continues—for example, shifting their weight along a narrow route? There is no single number of seconds in this Skill, so do not invent one as a pass/fail threshold.
How to support it: Longer balance that continues through a position change shows that control is no longer limited to a brief stop. Gradually add opportunities to hold and shift within familiar movements. Let your child adjust first, then prompt or support as needed.
Keep in mind: Focus on continuity of control, not higher equipment or a fixed time target.
Demonstrates more coordinated movement when engaging in skills, such as jumping for height and distance, hopping, and running.
What to notice: Move beyond whether the action happened and notice how parts connect: how your child prepares to jump, whether they steady themselves after landing, or whether they can turn after running. This is not a list of events to practice for a maximum count.
How to support it: Coordination includes the connection among preparation, action, and finish. Join in and demonstrate to help your child notice those relationships, then leave room for independent practice, comparison, and adjustment.
Keep in mind: Focus on one change at a time and acknowledge greater continuity rather than increasing speed, distance, and repetitions all at once.
Engages in more complex large muscle movements, such as swinging on a swing, climbing a ladder, dancing to music, or riding a tricycle, with ease.
What to notice: Can several body parts work together toward one purpose—for example, pedaling while watching the route and steering a tricycle? These examples depend on opportunity. Not having used one piece of equipment does not mean the underlying ability is absent.
How to support it: Complex movement organizes familiar actions into a more continuous whole. Start with an activity your child knows, demonstrate a transition they do not yet understand, help only at a specific obstacle, and gradually return control to them.
Keep in mind: Access affects performance, so do not turn every equipment example into a required checklist.
Demonstrates awareness of own body and other people's space during interactions.
What to notice: While moving with someone else, does your child leave room, slow down as they approach, or change direction? They are including another moving person in their spatial judgment, not only deciding whether their own body can pass.
How to support it: Shared movement asks your child to adjust as the distance between people changes. Join in to model leaving space, slowing, and moving around someone, and acknowledge when your child notices another person. When coordination is difficult, help them see the current spatial relationship.
Keep in mind: The goal is practice coordinating bodies in shared play, not only reminding them not to bump others.
5 years (60 months)
Demonstrates strength and stamina that allow for participation in physical activities of increasing levels of intensity for sustained periods of time, such as running around playing tag.
What to notice: In a familiar activity, can your child participate for longer and manage more movement changes? Running around a track or playing tag is only an example; distance, laps, and stamina rankings are not the goal.
How to support it: Sustained physical activity draws on strength, stamina, and movement control together. Begin with movement your child enjoys and already knows, gradually increase opportunities and manageable variation, and allow rest and a change of pace.
Keep in mind: Acknowledge sustained engagement while taking fatigue or discomfort seriously; do not substitute a uniform time or lap count for observing your child.
Moves body in relation to objects to effectively perform tasks, such as moving body in position to kick a ball.
What to notice: Does your child change their distance, angle, or direction relative to a target before acting? For example, instead of simply extending a foot, they may move to one side of the ball and then kick toward the intended direction.
How to support it: Your child is beginning to change their position deliberately so an action can achieve its purpose. Let them observe the result of an attempt and choose a new position or approach. When they are stuck, point out a relationship worth noticing rather than arranging the correct stance.
Keep in mind: Linking looking, adjusting, and acting makes this Skill useful across many games.
Common questions
My baby can sit steadily. Why should I also notice whether they get into sitting?
Maintaining a position and changing into it are different Skills. Playing after you place your baby in sitting shows that they can maintain the position. Moving into sitting from the side, tummy, or another position asks them to organize a transition. Seeing both helps you decide whether the next useful opportunity is more stable sitting play or more freedom to change positions on the floor.
If my baby is unsteady when walking, should we keep practicing walking all the time?
Bring practice into something your baby wants to do: walk toward you, carry a toy, or look outside together. A shorter distance and more available support can make an attempt manageable. If your baby returns to crawling, sits to rest, or asks for help, respond and wait for another willing attempt.
Do we need special movement equipment?
Begin with safe floor space, balls, toys, and familiar routes you already have. Equipment is useful only when it creates a particular movement opportunity; more complicated is not necessarily better. Knowing whether your child currently needs support, movement, balance, or practice adjusting to space is often more useful than buying another item.
Keep exploring
Sources and notes
Tummy time should take place while your baby is awake and closely supervised; babies should still be placed on their backs for sleep. American Academy of Pediatrics: The Importance of Tummy Time
If you are concerned about your child's development or notice that a previously used skill has disappeared, speak with your child's pediatrician or another qualified healthcare professional rather than waiting to complete activities. Developmental information and activities do not replace a professional assessment. CDC: If You're Concerned About Your Child's Development
Better Parenting’s child-development framework draws in part on the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five. For this pathway, you can also review Head Start’s Gross Motor Effective Practice Guide. Official framework sources inform domain, sub-domain, goal, and developmental-progression terminology where applicable. Better Parenting independently organizes the parent-facing What to notice and How to support it explanations and connects them with its own activity library.
The ELOF itself is not a curriculum, assessment, or checklist. Better Parenting’s Skill Assessment and Growth Path are Better Parenting product features, not Head Start assessment tools.
Skill wording and age references on this page come from the Better Parenting child-development framework. A child may show different behaviors in different situations, so understand these examples alongside everyday experience rather than treating one activity as a judgment of an entire sub-domain.
This page helps you understand what you can observe and how you can offer support. To explore your child's current position in this sub-domain, open the corresponding Growth Path in the Better Parenting app and use the Skill Assessment.
Better Parenting Content Team | Updated September 2, 2026