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FACT BRIEF

Are the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics 'quietly' changing the developmental milestones for children?

By Courtney Kealy
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A social media post implies something perhaps nefarious by saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics "quietly" changed developmental milestones for young children — checkpoints that chart children's progress as they grow.

But according to a senior CDC spokesperson, the organizations publicly announced reasons for changes on the CDC website and social media. AAP journal Pediatrics published a peer-reviewed article detailing the revision process.

The CDC's "Learn the Signs. Act Early" program, funded by AAP, convened experts to make the changes. They used milestones that about 75% of children from 2 months to 5 years old would meet. One goal was to try to preclude doctors and parents from taking a "wait and see" approach.

The changes were not done "quietly," and, "The changes were not related to the pandemic," said Belsie Gonzalez, a senior public affairs specialist at the CDC.

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
American Academy of Pediatrics Milestones for Developmental Surveillance Tools
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.