Below is a simplified list of age-appropriate gross motor skills.

The checklist may be used by parents to identify whether their child is relatively slow in acquiring certain gross motor skills.

A complete and comprehensive gross motor assessment performed by a pediatric physical therapist is required to diagnose whether your child has a clinical developmental delay.

Newborn to 1 month

• Lifts head briefly while on tummy
• Rolls partly to the side

2 to 3 months

• Lifts head to 90 degrees briefly when on tummy
• Lifts chest up when on tummy
• Able to sit with full support
• Head upright, but bobbing, in sitting

4 to 5 months

• Lies on tummy with arms straightened
• Pivots on tummy to reach toys
• Rolls from back to side
• Plays with feet to mouth
• Head steady when sitting with support
• Turns head in sitting position
• Sits alone for periods

6 to 7 months

• Rolls from back tummy 
• Sits independently
• Stands holding on when placed
• May crawl backwards

8 to 9 months

• Gets into hands-and-knees position
• Moves sitting to tummy
• Pivots in sitting
• Standing at furniture
• Crawls forward
• Pivots in sitting position

10 to 11 months

• Stands without support briefly
• Picks up object from floor from standing position
• Stands without support briefly
• Walks with one or both hands held
• Creeps on hands and feet (bear walk)

12 to 15 months

• Walks without support
• Fast walking
• Walks backward
• Walks sideways
• Throws a ball in sitting