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MINNESOTA DEVELOPMENTAL TIMELINE Sandra
L.H. Davenport, M.D.
Eric Kloos, M.Ed.
Sally Prouty
Purpose: Most
developmental tables and charts show developmental milestones without taking into
account any sensory losses, hospitalizations, illnesses, educational interventions
or major family events. The Minnesota Developmental Timeline shows the relationship
of all these factors over time. The purpose is to understand more clearly
the unique circumstances which affect a child’s learning. This chart
should be kept by the family with copies becoming part of a child’s permanent
educational and/or medical records. It should also be updated periodically
on the parent’s original with the chart copies being replaced as necessary.
Some parents may decide they do not want to keep the original.
The chart
is both succinct and approximate, i.e. exact dates and lengths of hospitalization.
Great details on milestones are not necessary. The focus should be on the
overall picture and the relationship of events. Details can be written on
the back of the page or on separate sheets. Who Should
Provide The Data: Parents or other caretakers usually
can provide the most of the information. Medical and educational professionals
can help make the descriptions more accurate and precise and help fill in the
informational gaps. Back to top How
To Construct The Chart: 1. While a form is often provided
and you can certainly use a handwritten form, you may also wish to develop your
own chart using a drawing program such as Corel Draw or by using as a spreadsheet
like Excel. The drawing programs produce pretty results but are more time-consuming
to construct. The spreadsheet is more readily available and will make it easy
to update the information yourself while keeping the information easy to read.
Two drawbacks are that the age/date columns become uneven and the hospitalization
lines will have to be drawn in by hand.
2. Enter child’s name, birth
date and the date the chart was filled in at the top of each page used. Decide
whether you want the hatch marks across the top of the chart to represent days,
weeks, months or years. Sometimes having a whole year on one page will not give
enough space to fill in all the important events. A young child might need one
page to represent 6 months while an older child might need one page to depict
the first 3 years of life. Write in the age at the larger marks and also put the
date plus age at least twice on each page, e.g. 6 mo. (8/96). Having both makes
it easier to fill in information. Sometimes parents remember an event occurred
just after New Year’s but would have to figure out how old the child was
at that time.
3. Mark in all hospitalizations (see Figure 1). These
are bars which span the entire page and are shaded or colored in. The reason
for doing this is that children typically show delay or even regression in development
during and sometimes after a hospitalization depending on the severity of the
illness and the degree of perceived physical or emotional trauma experienced.
Hospitalizations therefore have a major impact on all areas of development.
4. Write in precise terms the reason for hospitalization or major illnesses
(see Figure 2). For instance, PE tubes, Nissen, pneumonia, EUA (exam under anesthesia),
etc. Explain procedures or abbreviations on the reverse side. Under
Other Illness write in medical problems like ear infection, swallowing problem,
etc. A line can be drawn from the description across the page to the date or age
at which the problem resolved. For instance, swallowing problems might last
from birth to 3 1/2 years. so the words are written at the birth line and a line
with an arrow is drawn across the entire first page and subsequent page(s) ending
at 3 1/2 as shown in Figure 2.
5. Fill in developmental milestones (see
Figure 3). Motor and Mobility includes both gross motor milestones and O&M
(orientation and mobility) milestones if applicable. Under Vision, Hearing,
Taste and Smell, note what sensory stimuli the child responded to at different
ages and give numbers for visual acuity, degree of hearing loss, and when tests
were given. Also note when glasses, hearing aids, FM system at home or school,
or any other devise was introduced. Use a line across the page to note how
long the child used the device and if it was discontinued. Use an asterisk or
number to indicate an explanation on the reverse side as to how long the child
used the device. For instance, a hearing aid might have been fitted at age 3 years.
but was only used during preschool on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for 2 1/2
hours during the school year. A dotted or dashed line might indicate this
kind of non-continuous use.
6. Under Educational Services note when teachers
and therapists began and stopped working with a child. (See Figure 4) Use
abbreviations like ECSE (early childhood special education), PT (physical therapy),
etc. Note whether this is at home or school and duration of service, i.e. 2x/wk
for 30 min. This kind of detail can be put in an explanatory note on the
reverse side.
7. Major Family Events are entered next (see Figure 5).
These should include anything that can affect development like the birth of another
sibling, death of a grandmother, a move, foster placement, frequent changes in
home health care aides, etc.
8. Color code major areas that need emphasis
(see Figure 6). For instance, hospitalizations might be colored with yellow
highlighter. Anything that affects hearing can be highlighted in pink such
as hearing milestones, ear infections, PE tubes, deaf/hard of hearing teacher,
deaf uncle moved into town. Please note that color coding does not show
up on black and white copies so use this judiciously. Back
to top Possible Uses For This Chart: 1.Summary
for parents/guardians.
2.Summary of past history for child’s education
file. The chart can be amended periodically and be available for all
new staff to review.
3.Summary for medical file.
4.Summary for
case managers in settings outside education or clinics.
Figure
1 (pdf file format): Draw line across the entire page to denote hospitalizations.
Figure 2 (pdf file format): Describe
reasons for hospitalizations and note other illnesses.
Figure
3 (pdf file format): Briefly describe important milestones in each category
of development
Figure 4
(pdf file format): Note when educational services start & stop.
Figure
5 (pdf file format)
Figure
6 (pdf file format)
Figure
7 (pdf file format) Back to top | |
