Children develop at different rates, and progress is not always in a straight line - children often move forward at different speeds, following their own unique patterns of learning, including common variations.
A health visitor’s child development review is a chance to check how your baby or young child is growing, learning and thriving – providing an opportunity for you to talk through anything you’re unsure about and explore your questions together, so you feel supported and informed. The focus is to spot any early signs that your child might need extra support, so you can get the right help as soon as possible - something that can make a big difference for their development and wellbeing.
These reviews are done together with you, because you know your child best. They look at the whole picture - your child’s physical and emotional development, their growth, and also your family’s circumstances and wellbeing. Health visitors use a careful mix of professional observation, clinical knowledge, assessment tools and your insights as a parent or carer to understand how your child is getting on, identify strengths and spot any areas where extra support might help.
Sometimes development may be delayed - for example, babies born early are assessed using their corrected age. Other times, development may look different from what’s typical at that stage, and this may need quicker attention. Health visitors are trained to spot these signs (often called “red” or “amber” flags) and to link families with the right help early on, whether that’s extra advice, a more detailed assessment, or ongoing specialist support. This includes support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and for any child with additional health or developmental needs, ensuring every child has the help they need to learn, grow and thrive.
Please use the drop-down titles below to find further information on:
Motor development is how children learn to control their bodies and movements. This starts with big movements like rolling, sitting, crawling, and walking (gross motor skills) and gradually moves on to smaller, more precise movements like picking up toys, feeding themselves, or turning pages in a book (fine motor skills).
These skills are an important part of growing up. They help children explore, play, and make sense of the world around them.
Health visitors and their teams can support families by encouraging motor development from the start and by noticing if a baby or child may be finding some movements more difficult. Sometimes delays or differences in how a child moves can be an early sign that they need extra help or a specialist assessment.
📄 iHV Parent Tip:
Spinal muscular atrophy Type 1: Spotting the signs and symptoms
➡️ External Resources:
Healthier Together is a helpful website with information created in partnership with the iHV to help parents know when to seek support and what to expect with their baby and child’s movement.
When Should I Worry About My Baby’s Movements?
When Should I Worry About My Child’s Movements?
Action Cerebral Palsy | Signs – Campaign created in collaboration with the iHV to support to know the warning signs of cerebral palsy and seek guidance.
Speech, language and communication skills help your child learn, make friends, share their feelings and grow with confidence. This development begins long before their first words, through simple, everyday moments with the people around them that help them understand and connect with the world.
Health visitors and their teams can provide support in:
- Sharing ideas for early communication – simple ways to chat, sing and interact with your baby, even before birth, to help build early language skills.
- Demonstrating everyday interactions – small moments of talking and responding can support your child’s development. Activities like shared book reading can bring a lot of joy to you and your child and support their development - they can suggest resources you may find useful.
- Knowing what’s typical – they can help families identify speech and language problems early.
- Regular checks with all families during the early years – these reviews are designed to offer reassurance, answer your questions and, when needed, help you access early support. At the 2–2½ year review, health visitors look closely at early language skills as an important part of a child’s overall development.
- Using tools like the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, alongside the Early Language Identification Measure (ELIM) in many areas - (ELIM is a newer and more accurate tool to spot young children with early language needs).
- Offering support that fits your child – talking with you about ideas to try at home and where to find additional help if needed.
- Connecting families to further support if needed – signposting or referring to local community or specialist services when this may be helpful.
➡️ External Resources
Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives
Health for Under 5s – Speech, Language & Communication Toolkit
Hearing helps babies and children pick up sounds, learn to talk, and feel connected to the people around them. When a child has hearing loss, getting the right support early helps make sure they can still learn, communicate and thrive in their own way.
Hearing loss happens when part of the ear isn’t working as it should. People use words like ‘deaf’, ‘deafness’ or ‘hearing loss’ to describe all levels of hearing difficulty - from mild to profound. It can also include hearing loss in just one ear or temporary hearing problems like glue ear.
Please see the Parent Tips below for further information:
📄 iHV Parent Tips:
Suspected hearing loss in babies and children
Confirmed hearing loss in babies and children
Please note, further information regarding glue ear can be found in our Childhood Illness and Staying Healthy section.
Toilet training is your baby or child learning to use the potty or toilet instead of a nappy. Research shows it is better for your child’s bladder and bowel health to stop using nappies between 18 and 30 months. Most children can master potty training from around 18 months and can usually wipe themselves clean by the time they start school.
📄 iHV Parent Tip:
➡️ External Resources:
Healthier Together: Toilet Training hosts our Parent Tip to help support families to receive a consistent message for toilet training.
Starting Reception: The Potty Training Guide - A new national guide aimed to help parents potty train their children was launched by a coalition of early years experts and partner organisations (including the iHV).
CEREBRA: Toilet Training - A guide for parents provides a range of information and resources to help with potty training and children’s bowel and bladder conditions -including constipation and toilet training children with additional needs including autism. Eric has created an excellent video to support parents - Potty and Toilet Training - The three stages (National).
CEREBRA: Toilet Training - A guide for parents (for children with brain conditions).
Down Syndrome UK: Pants4School - Toilet training children with Down Syndrome
We also recommend that you access our Little Sparks, Big Starts webpage created in collaboration with Ready to Relate to discover how the everyday moments of connection that build your baby’s brain and shape their future health and development.
External Resources
The iHV signposts to the following trusted resources for parents and carers:
