Health Topic

Infant and Newborn Development

Babies do not develop at the same rate. However, there are 5 growth areas that are crucial to infant and newborn development. Read about them.

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Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Infant and Newborn Development

When will my baby take his first step or say her first word? During their first year, babies start to develop skills they will use for the rest of their lives. The normal growth of babies can be broken down into the following areas:

  • Gross motor - controlling the head, sitting, crawling, maybe even starting to walk
  • Fine motor - holding a spoon, picking up a piece of cereal between thumb and finger
  • Sensory - seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling
  • Language - starting to make sounds, learning some words, understanding what people say
  • Social - the ability to play with family members and other children

Babies do not develop at the same rate. There is a wide range of what is considered "normal." Your baby may be ahead in some areas and slightly behind in others. If you are worried about possible delays, talk to your baby's health care provider.

It sits within Children and Teenagers.

The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Infant and Newborn Development

364 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

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Diagnosis and Tests

Treatments and Therapies

Related Issues

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Infant Behavior, Child Development. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Infant and Newborn Development, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.