Child Development Test: Check Your Child's Milestones for Ages 2 to 5
A parent-report milestones screening for children aged 2 to 5, based on the CDC's Learn the Signs, Act Early checklists. You get a score for five domains, a plain-language read, and a free PDF for your next visit.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
Child Development Test: Milestones Screener (Ages 2 to 5) is a free, confidential 25-question self-assessment, original items, informed by CDC milestones. It takes about 5 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 3 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
What this screening looks at
Development happens across several connected areas at once. This screening organizes what you are noticing into the five domains clinicians typically track, so your result is easy to read and useful to bring to your pediatrician.
Communication and thinking
How your child uses words, follows directions, solves small problems, and plays pretend, the building blocks of language and reasoning.
Social, emotional, and self-care
How your child relates to others, manages big feelings, and takes on small daily tasks like feeding and dressing themselves.
Movement and physical skills
Big movements like running, climbing, and jumping, and small movements like holding a crayon or spoon with control.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Covers five domains, not just one | Often just language or motor | Yes, all five |
| Informed by public CDC milestone checklists | Sometimes | Yes, directly |
| Warm, non-alarmist framing | Rarely | Throughout |
| Explains milestone ranges, not fixed deadlines | Rarely | Yes |
| Age-appropriate for 2 to 5 year olds | Often too broad | Yes |
| Clear next step (pediatrician conversation) | No | Yes |
| Confidential, no account needed | Often tracked | Runs in your browser |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–50 in total. Your result falls into one of 3 bands, unless a single area is low enough to decide the result on its own (last row):
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–16 | Few of these milestones showing | Few of the milestones in this screening are showing yet. Bring this to your child's doctor soon; early support is the point of screening. |
| 17–33 | About half of these milestones showing | Around half of the milestones in this screening are showing. The domain bars above say where, and they matter more than this total. |
| 34–50 | Most milestones showing | Most of these milestones are showing for your child, and no domain scored low. Check the domain bars above all the same. |
| Any area at 3 or below | At least one domain with few milestones showing | One or more domains here show few or none of their milestones. That matters more than the total, so treat it as your result and raise it with your pediatrician soon. |
How this screening works, and what the domains mean
Each of the 25 questions asks how often a milestone-related behavior shows up for your child right now, rated not yet, sometimes, or yes. Your answers are grouped into five domains: communication, social and emotional, thinking and problem solving, movement, and self-care. This five-domain grouping is our own way of organizing the questions for a clear result; it mirrors the general structure clinician tools use, but it is not a validated clinical subscale itself.
Your total score and the domain breakdown together give you a fuller picture than a single number alone. A child who is strong in four domains and a bit behind in one is a very different picture from a child who is a little behind across the board, and both are worth different conversations with your pediatrician.
Why this screening does not judge whether your child is on track
This screening asks the same 25 questions of every family, whether your child is 2 or nearly 6. Real developmental screening does not work that way. The tools clinicians use, like the ASQ-3, have a separate questionnaire for each age interval, and the CDC's Learn the Signs, Act Early checklists list different milestones at 2 years, 30 months, 3 years, 4 years and 5 years. A skill that is right on time for a 2 year old can be a year late for a 4 year old, and one questionnaire cannot tell those apart.
So read the five domain scores, not the total, and treat them as observations to bring to your pediatrician rather than a verdict about your child's development. Three things outweigh anything this page can calculate: a domain where most milestones are not showing yet, a skill your child once had and has lost, and your own sense that something is not right. Any one of those is worth raising at your next visit, whatever the numbers here say. The CDC's own milestone checklists, organised by age, are free at cdc.gov/act-early and are a better fit for judging pace.
Milestones are ranges, not deadlines
It helps to remember that developmental milestones describe a typical range, not a strict deadline every child must hit on the same day. Some children walk at 11 months and some at 16 months, and both are entirely typical. What matters more than any single milestone is the overall pattern over time: whether your child is generally gaining new skills, and whether a gap in one area is isolated or part of a wider pattern across several domains.
Being a bit behind in one area at one point in time is common and often resolves with time, play, and everyday support. A pattern across several domains, or a skill that was present and then disappeared, is the kind of thing worth mentioning to your pediatrician sooner rather than later.
The tools clinicians use, and related screenings
Pediatricians commonly use standardized tools to track development more formally than a parent questionnaire can. The Denver II is a clinician-administered screening covering personal-social, fine motor, language, and gross motor skills, typically given in the office. The Ages & Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ-3) is a widely used, copyrighted parent-completed tool covering similar domains at set ages; we reference it here by name only and do not reproduce its items. If your pediatrician has not yet used one of these with your child, this screening can help you decide whether to ask for one.
If autism traits specifically are part of what you are noticing, alongside or instead of broader delays, the M-CHAT-R Toddler Autism Screening (for toddlers 16 to 30 months) or the Child & Teen Autism Test (for older children) can add useful detail. If language is your main concern, the Developmental Language Disorder Test looks closely at understanding, expression, and everyday impact for children aged 3 to 8. And if attention or activity level stands out more than anything else, the Child ADHD Test (Parent Report) covers that specifically.
What to do with your result
Whatever domain stood out, the most useful next step is almost always the same: bring this to your child's next well-child visit, or call sooner if something feels urgent to you. Pediatricians expect and welcome these conversations, and many track development at every visit using their own standardized tools anyway. You know your child's day-to-day patterns better than anyone, and pairing that knowledge with a structured checklist like this one tends to make for a much more productive appointment.
Methodology & sources
This is an original, house-built screening. Its five domains and general approach are informed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Learn the Signs, Act Early developmental milestone checklists, which are public domain materials developed with the American Academy of Pediatrics for use at well-child visits from 2 months through 5 years. The item wording here is our own, written to be easy to answer honestly at home, not a reproduction of the CDC's exact checklist text.
We also name, but do not reproduce, two tools clinicians commonly use for more formal developmental screening: the Denver II (Frankenburg et al., 1992), a clinician-administered screening test, and the Ages & Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ-3; Squires & Bricker, 2009), a copyrighted parent-completed questionnaire used at set ages in many pediatric practices. Our 25 items and five domains, communication, social and emotional, thinking and problem solving, movement, and self-care, are original writing informed by the general structure these tools share, not a copy of either one.
The three result bands, on track, some areas to watch, and talk with your pediatrician soon, are our own educational thirds of the score range, not clinical cutoffs from any published instrument. This is a screening for education and reflection, not a diagnosis or a formal developmental assessment. Milestones are described in ranges for a reason: children develop at different paces, and a single questionnaire cannot capture the full picture the way a pediatrician, watching your child over time, can.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Learn the Signs. Act Early: CDC's Developmental Milestones. Available at cdc.gov/act-early/milestones/index.html.
- Frankenburg WK, Dodds J, Archer P, Shapiro H, Bresnick B. The Denver II: A major revision and restandardization of the Denver Developmental Screening Test. Pediatrics. 1992;89(1):91–97.
- Squires J, Bricker D. Ages & Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ-3): A Parent-Completed Child Monitoring System. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing; 2009.
- Lipkin PH, Macias MM; Council on Children with Disabilities, Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Promoting optimal development: identifying infants and young children with developmental disorders through developmental surveillance and screening. Pediatrics. 2020;145(1):e20193449.
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 15). Child Development Test: Milestones Screener (Ages 2 to 5). Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/child-development
Child Development Test: Milestones Screener (Ages 2 to 5) FAQ
What does this milestones screening cover?
Twenty-five questions across five domains: communication, social and emotional, thinking and problem solving, movement, and self-care, for children aged 2 to 5.
Is this the same as the ASQ-3 or Denver II?
No. Those are separate, clinician-used tools. The Denver II is administered in a pediatrician's office, and the ASQ-3 is a copyrighted questionnaire. This screening is an original, informal tool you can use at home to organize what you are noticing before that kind of appointment.
My child is behind in one area but fine in others. Is that a problem?
It is worth raising. Uneven development is common and often temporary, so one area slightly behind others is usually not a concern on its own. A domain where most milestones are not showing yet is different, and it deserves a conversation with your pediatrician even when the other four domains look strong. So does any skill your child once had and lost.
What if my result says to talk with my pediatrician soon?
It means enough of the milestones asked about are not yet showing up for your pediatrician's input to be worthwhile. This is not a diagnosis. Many children catch up with a bit of extra support, and pediatricians can point you toward a formal evaluation or early intervention if that is the right next step.
Are milestones the same for every child?
No. Milestones describe typical ranges, not fixed deadlines. Children reach the same skill at different ages and are still entirely typical. What matters more is the overall trend over time.
Is this test confidential?
Your answers are scored in your browser and are never sent to us. They stay in this tab so you can return to your result, and closing or clearing the tab clears them. If you choose to have the PDF emailed to you at the end, we receive your summary scores along with your email address so we can write to you about the result, never your individual answers.
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