New practice exam on child development

March 15, 2025

I am happy to announce a new practice exam is available from Lactation College. This one looks at Child Development: From Birth to 2 Years.

Link to Lactation College

Test taking tips

I have always found the questions on any exam I have ever taken about child development to be difficult. The pictures are often of poor quality and the questions tend to be bizarre. My approach has been to try to get to the right answer by eliminating wrong answers, getting down to two choices - and then hoping for the best! AND I’M A PEDIATRICIAN!!

Let’s use this question as an example.

The mother of this infant is breastfeeding. What is THE BEST recommendation when talking to her about his diet?

A) Continue only exclusively breastfeeding

B) Continue only exclusively breastfeeding and finger foods but start some cow’s milk so the infant gets used to it

C) Continue breastfeeding and the complementary foods you added - rich in iron, zinc and protein

D) Continue breastfeeding and encourage the infant is self feed the complementary foods you added a while ago

First, how old is this infant?

OK, so how old is this infant? What are the clues?

• The infant looks to be pretty steady in his sitting skills so that is at least a 6- month skill

• Could this infant be crawling? We can’t tell because he is on a beach but he looks pretty sturdy - crawling is about a 9-month skill

• Could this infant be walking? Maybe, but he is not wearing shoes… that’s not a great clue but that’s how I think about it. And he looks a little young to be walking around.

• He has upper teeth - that’s a helpful clue. Roughly - first lower teeth erupt 4-6 months; upper central teeth erupt 8-10 months ish…

• The pincer grasp is a 9-month skill - and exam boards want you to know that - he has gloves on and is not eating so no way to know that but - FACT - pincer grasp is a 9-month skill

Let’s eliminate answers

Can we eliminate any answers?

A) Continue only exclusively breastfeeding

The official recommendation is exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, then add complementary foods. This infant looks older than 6 months to me so I am knocking this answer out.

B)) Continue only exclusively breastfeeding and finger foods but start some cow’s milk so the infant gets used to it

This answer is definitely out - there is no such recommendation about cow’s milk.

C) Continue breastfeeding and the complementary foods you added - rich in iron, zinc and protein

This is a good answer but they ask THE BEST ANSWER.

D) Continue breastfeeding, encourage the infant is self feed the complementary foods (rich in iron, zinc and protein) that were added a while ago

We got this down to C or D but I think this is the BEST answer

The answer is:

The BEST answer is D - this adorable little guy is 9 months old - he sits easily, is starting to crawl, has 4 teeth (2 lower, 2 upper) and he loves to feed himself. His pincher grasp is impressive. C is a great answer too but I think as this child is 9 months old they can self feed so that makes D the BEST answer.

Practice exams

The goal of this practice exam is to offer an easy-to-remember rough framework of child development milestones - like for gross motor:

• 2 months - lift head when tummy down

• 4 months - roll

• 6 months - sit

• 9 months - crawl

• 12 months - pull to a stand, cruise

• 12-18 months - walk

Things to know:

• This practice exam has 25 question and costs $5.

• Answers and explanations are given for the correct answer for each question.

• Your score for the quiz is provided at the end.

• There is no time limit for this quiz.

• You need to complete the quiz in one session - answers cannot be saved.

• While taking practice exams are a great way to learn, no certificates or educational credits are provided with any quiz.

I hope this helps!

Bobbi Philipp