European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Background                                     
Developmental milestones are a collection of objectives or indicators that a child is supposed to perform during development period. These are classified as gross motor, fine motor, verbal, cognitive, social-emotional, and behavioral. Monitoring and recognizing developmental milestones can assist providers in diagnosing delayed development more accurately, allowing for early intervention and improved results[1].
The term "developmental delay (DD)" refers to a delay in attaining baseline milestones in the 5 developmental domains[2]. Early DD is associated with poor attention and behavioral issues in infants and low academic performance in school-aged children, with future mental, emotional, social, and economical implications as these children mature into adolescence [3].
Additionally, researches have proven that good parenting is contingent on mothers' knowledge of child development, as mothers who understand how to promote their children's growth will have more favorable results [4]. On the other hand, insufficient understanding results in erroneous expectations and an overestimation of the rate of growth, frequently manifesting as impatience or intolerance toward the child's behavior [5, 6].
Parents often desire to participate in assessing and supervising their child's growth [7], and they get varying degrees of information and instruction in order to fulfill this role. While it is obvious that parents have a patchwork understanding of children development, little is known about their degree of knowledge and the factors that impact it[8].
The types of information that parents have access to and the reliability of the sources remain unknown. 'There is conflicting data in the literature about parental understanding of child development' [9]. Additionally, there have been no local research on this issue in Saudi Arabia to far, indicating that this study will fill a critical need.This study is determined forevaluating the level of knowledgeof motherstowards developmental milestones.