The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Andrew Vitelli

A New Spot for Game Day

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Tom Miller & John McCarthy – new owners

It’s been nearly ten years since McArthur’s American Grille and Michael’s Tavern, two longtime Pleasantville pillars and prime village venues to grab a beer and watch the game, closed their doors. Tom Miller, a resident of the village for nearly 20 years, believes Pleasantville has not had a true sports bar since.

“Nothing has ever really filled that gap,” says Miller. “And we see a really strong interest and strong need for that style and that type of establishment not only in Pleasantville but in the surrounding area.”

This spring, Miller and John McCarthy, a -going on 20 year-Pleasantville resident, will open The Pleasantville Tavern, a bar and restaurant they hope will give thirsty local sports fans exactly the venue they’ve been looking for since 2016. It will take over the location of Lucy’s, the long-time bar and music venue on the corner of Bedford Road and Wheeler Avenue, right in the downtown and just minutes by foot from the Pleasantville Metro-North Station.

That location is a prime reason that Miller and McCarthy–longtime pals whose college-age eldest sons are best friends–purchased the spot from Lucy’s former owner. Miller & McCarthy both have been looking to open a sports bar in the village for years, and considered several prior opportunities including buying Michael’s when it closed. None came to fruition until last year, when McCarthy learned that Lucy’s location might become available. McCarthy began speaking to the owner last January, and in August approached Miller to see if he was interested. Four months later, the pair had closed on the purchase.

“I saw the opportunity. I know everybody in town has been crying for a place like this,” says McCarthy. “We felt like there was a need for an American pub grub type of place.

Elevated Pub Food

Rendering of new façade

Miller and McCarthy’s goal, they say, is to create a venue that is a great place to watch a game, or to grab a nice meal with the family.

Though a sports bar, it will eschew the sports bar cliches that might make it less inviting to patrons simply interested in having dinner or drinks.

“We like to call it a sports bar without the sports memorabilia,” a place that seamlessly blends authentic charm with vibrant community appeal with memorable experiences in a warm and inviting atmosphere,” McCarthy says.

The Tavern will have 12 screens, making it a prime destination for friends with varying viewing interests.

“We definitely want to be the kind of place where you can go with your group of friends, and if I want to watch the baseball game and they want to watch the college football game, we will be showing all of them,” says Miller.

But the screens are spaced out, as the owners sought to avoid the kind of wall-to-wall overload that one finds at a Buffalo Wild Wings or, in the past, an ESPN Zone.

The restaurant will include two bars and will comprise a main area and a back room, which will be used for private events. When there are no private events, that room will serve as an overflow or family dining room, with a little bit of a buffer between the sports fans screaming at the TVs at the front bar.

The opening day menu has not been finalized, but Miller and McCarthy say the selection, at least to start, will focus on simple bar food done well.

Rendering of interior

“You’ll be able to get a really good burger, really good wings, good chicken sandwiches,” said Miller. “Elevated pub or tavern food.”

In addition to serving local patrons, Pleasantville Tavern’s owners will look to source from local businesses. Captain Lawrence, the Elmsford-based craft brewery originally launched in Pleasantville, sold its first keg at Lucy’s, and Miller and McCarthy plan to continue that tradition with two Captain Lawrence beers on tap. They also plan to serve brews from Soul Brewing Company in the village, and they are also reaching out to local farms to fill out the menu.

In addition to its location in the heart of Pleasantville’s downtown, the tavern has a 30+car municipal parking lot in the back.

Business & Bartending

McCarthy, a director of field operations for a New York City construction management firm in his day job, has tended bar since he was too young to drink, working in the bar business when he was just 16 years old. He later became the manager of Joshua Tree, a popular sports bar in Manhattan’s Murray Hill that closed in 2020.

A father of four, he finally left the bar business when he got married in the early 2000s.

Miller’s only restaurant experience, he explains, is “on the opposite side of the bar.” But his business experience has complemented McCarthy’s bar and construction background.

“This period has been sort of exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. I’m certainly doing things that I don’t do on a daily basis,” Miller says. “But my business experience lends to a lot of the things we are trying to do.”

To McCarthy and Miller, there is nothing quite like The Pleasantville Tavern either in the village or in the surrounding municipalities, despite a plethora of gastropubs and great restaurants.

“We’ve been talking to neighboring towns, people in Briarcliff and Chappaqua,” McCarthy says. “They are almost a little jealous.”

Raising the Flag at Byram Hills and Across The Country, Flag Football is Getting Girls Onto The Gridiron

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Byram Hills Girls Flag Football Team
PHOTO BY NINA KRUSE

Growing up in a big family of die-hard Jets fans, Byram Hills senior Angjelina Vataj grew up loving football, both watching and playing.

“Especially during family barbecues and anything like that, we would just play in the backyard,” Vataj recalls. “I have a very big family, so we would all just make teams and play.”

Della Gonzalez, Vataj’s classmate, grew up loving the sport and frequently playing pickup games with her father and brothers.

“I always loved throwing the ball,” she says. “I always had a good arm naturally.”

But for both girls, football was a sport they assumed they could play only informally, in scrimmages with family and friends. Organized football, particularly at the varsity level, was for boys, just as professional football was for men.

Now, years later, Gonzalez is the starting quarterback for Byram’s varsity flag football program, while Vataj is the starting center. Heading into their final season, they are part of the first graduating class that saw girls’ flag football offered as a varsity sport throughout their high school tenure.

A Fast-Growing Sport

In New York State and in Section 1, girls flag football has seen its popularity skyrocket in the five years it has been offered as an organized sport.

“As a lot of people have said, it’s one of the fastest growing sports in the state and in the country,” says Scott Saunders, Director of Health, Physical Education and Athletics at Byram Hills Central School District. “It seems like every year more and more schools are hopping on board.”

Byram Hills got in on year two, in the Spring of 2023, after only a handful of schools took part in the inaugural 2022 season. The program has grown from under eight schools in Section 1 fielding a team to 35, nearly half of all districts.

“We love that Section 1 has poured a lot of time and effort into this, and I just think it’s a great offering for athletes,” says Saunders.

The NFL has been a prominent booster of the sport. The league has allocated grant money to any district establishing a team to help the program get on its feet. They’ve also held promotional events, including a 2023 jamboree in Somers featuring Daniel Jones, then the starting quarterback for the New York Giants.

Byram Hills Quarterback Della Gonzalez
PHOTO BY NINA KRUSE

At Armonk, the push for a team initially came from some of the students, who approached Rob Castagna, then the Director of Health, Physical Education, and Athletics, in 2022 and expressed interest in playing should the school launch a program, Saunders says. The first year, 2022, the district launched an intramural program during the offseason to see if there was sufficient interest to launch a varsity program.

“When we started that first season, we had nearly 40 participants, and the girls were really excited to get going with it,” Saunders says. “There was a lot of energy there.”

Jennie Croke, a Physical Education teacher, served as head coach for the first two varsity seasons. She asked Simon Berk, who also coaches the boys varsity football team, to get on board, and Berk took over as head coach last year.

“I am a father of four girls, and I’ve been coaching boys’ football for the past 22 years,” says Berk. “The idea of getting to coach football for young women was a really awesome opportunity.”

Different Style Of Play

Though both football, the boys and girls versions of the sport are very different games. A “tackle” in the girls sport is simply grabbing the opponent’s flag, rather than bringing her to the ground, making it a much less physical sport. Blocking is also not allowed – though players can set what are akin to moving screens – and linemen are allowed to go out for passes. And there are seven players on each side of the field rather than eleven.

“Although they are both football, the X’s and O’s and the style of play is still so different,” says Berk.

But while the big hits of the boys’ game are absent, Berk sees it as a misnomer to call it truly non-contact.

“It’s a ‘non-contact sport’ in the same way that basketball and soccer are non-contact sports, and by that, I mean there is a lot of contact,” he says. “You are teaching the skills of the game, and the rules that we play with in New York State, there is no blocking, but people still block. It is no tackling, but it is still a very physical sport. So, I think that has been the trickiest part, teaching that physicality within the structure of the rules.”

Gonzalez believes flag football has the right balance of physicality without the potential risks of tackle football.

“Obviously I don’t want to be playing football with a bunch of boys and getting hit,” she notes. “But I feel like it’s so great to be in a league where you could play competitively with other girls that actually want to play.”

The program, like the sport, has come a long way in its first few seasons. In its inaugural year, Gonzalez says, many of the players saw it as less intense a commitment than the more established varsity sports. But the game has grown more competitive as the team has become more established.

“I feel like a lot of the girls on the team didn’t have a passion for football before and they just joined it for fun. But once they started, they slowly started to love the game.”

Last year, Byram Hills went 7-8-1, advancing to the Section 1 quarterfinals.

Still, Vataj says, the team is inviting even to students who have not played varsity sports and had little prior football experience. She noted that flag football does not make cuts, so anyone who works hard can at least expect a roster spot.

“This gives them an opportunity to play a sport that they like even if they are not at that advanced varsity level yet, so that they can learn the sport, get a feel for it, get better at it, and overall, just play a sport that they are interested in.”

Additionally, because the sport is new, girls joining in high school will not be at a disadvantage going up against athletes who have played the sport since childhood. But that may be changing.

Bigger And Bigger

There are now options for girls as young as preschool. Three years ago, Berk and his friend John Praino launched a youth program called Girls Flag Bedford. The program offers league play for girls as young as six and seven, with clinics for younger athletes. The league has a significant Armonk contingent, Berk says.

And both locally and nationally, the sport continues to rise in prominence. Horace Greeley in Chappaqua now also has a varsity team. And in 2028, flag football will be introduced to the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles for both men and women.

Still, Gonzalez believes that the program still has a way to go before it is taken as seriously as more established sports. She noted that their games bring friends and family to the stands but do not draw the big crowds that the boys’ team does.

“I feel like it is just small steps that we have to take to prove that we are a real sport,” she states.

Scaling Back Smartphones through OK to Delay

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How a group of parents in Chappaqua and Armonk are fighting against smartphones and social media for their community’s young teens

When Chappaqua resident Mark Kornblau’s oldest daughter entered fifth grade, Kornblau did what he says most parents of middle school-age children did at the time. He gave her a smartphone.

Soon, he began to struggle with managing his daughter’s relationship with the technology. He found that monitoring her smartphone and constantly negotiating over screen time limits was a tougher task than anticipated.

He then read The Anxious Generation, a 2024 bestseller by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt that attributes a rise in childhood mental illness to the spread of smartphones and social media. Among Haidt’s arguments that resonated was the call for collective action, such as parents coming together and agreeing not to give their children a smartphone until a certain age.

“I’ve seen with my daughter that it is not that she wants to always be connected to her phone,” Kornblau, who also has two younger children, says. “And when she knows that her friends aren’t, it’s very easy for her to separate from it.”

Melanie Cohen, a mother in Chappaqua, was also motivated by Haidt’s book, which she read as her oldest child was in fourth grade.

“It just became this expectation for so many families that you were going to give your kids a smartphone when they are going into middle school,” she explains. “And I just felt so frustrated and angry that that is the expectation.”

It was then, in 2024, that Cohen discovered OK to Delay, a grassroots organization aimed at empowering parents to delay giving their children smartphones. Launched in 2019 by a pair of moms in Darien, Connecticut, the organization gives parents resources to organize in their communities to work collectively to hold off on giving kids smartphones.

“I felt like this was probably our best angle to bring this to our town, because we don’t have to re-invent the wheel,” Cohen recalls. “OK to Delay has all the language, they have the presentations. They have all the experience.”

Cohen connected with Kornblau through a mutual friend, and together last spring they launched a Chappaqua chapter of OK to Delay. In September, they organized their first event, where close to 100 people packed the New Castle Community Center. “It really got the ball rolling for this school year,” Cohen says. “So many people felt like, thank you so much for bringing this to our town.”

Armonk resident Brett Goldman, meanwhile, saw first-hand the perils of smartphone use in middle school when he gave his now 18-year-old daughter a phone in 2019, when she was in 6th or 7th grade.

“We didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t know what kind of weapon we were handing her,” he recalls. “I watched what happened when I gave her a phone. It quickly became a race to maximize social media time, and I see that as, to some extent, a waste of time.”

Goldman wanted to approach things differently with his younger children, now 9 and 6 years old. Last year, he got in touch with the founder of OK to Delay and launched an Armonk chapter.

The first meeting, in September 2024, brought some 75 people to the Whippoorwill Theater at the North Castle Public Library, according to Goldman. Three months later, twice that number came to an event at the IBM Learning Center. Some signed up to volunteer, including co-chairs Jeff Sottolano and Jennifer Clark.

The aim of OK to Delay is to get as many parents as possible in a community on board to agree to delay giving their children smartphones. This way, a child without a smartphone in middle school is not an outlier, the only one of his or her friends not on Snapchat, Instagram, or TikTok.

“It really is true that kids are actually happier, and they will say it themselves, to be without phones constantly,” says Kornblau. “As long as they know that they are not missing out on everybody else being on them.”

The Anxious Generation

Concerns about teen cell phone use date back to multitap texting, but the rise of both smartphones and social media has accelerated these worries over the past decade. The 2020 Netflix docudrama The Social Dilemma described how social media manipulates and addicts users, spurring depression and anxiety in teenagers, particularly teen girls.

When The Anxious Generation was released in 2024, it came after more than a decade of increasing mental illness and distress among teens and adolescents. Haidt attributes this, at least in large part, to the rise of smartphones and social media, alongside otherwise overprotective parenting and the decline of traditional children’s play. Essentially, Haidt argues that parents are too risk-averse in the real world, where threats are often rare and exaggerated, and too lax in the virtual world, where children are more likely to be targeted by predators, exposed to inappropriate content, or sucked into the wormhole of social media.

Haidt is far from the first to warn of the harms of social media to children. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, warned in 2017 that smartphones and social media were creating a crisis of depression, anxiety and loneliness for teens. By 2023, the data backing this conclusion had grown more robust.

This link has also become a public policy issue. This spring, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the state would require schools from kindergarten to high school to ban smartphone use during school hours.

But the data is far from unanimous, as some research paints a nuanced picture or suggests potential benefits to smartphone use. A report published earlier this year by researchers at the University of South Florida found that smartphone use may benefit children and young teens, with 11 to 13-year-olds who owned smartphones found to be less likely to report depression and anxiety (the study was less sanguine on social media posting, finding it posed multiple harms).

Different Approaches

OK to Delay’s local chairs acknowledge multiple possible approaches to limiting middle schoolers’ access to social media. Cohen says she won’t give her children a cell phone until they are at an age when she sees the benefits as outweighing the risks. She believes that concerns about such an approach – such as not being able to track or contact your kid at all times – are overstated.

“It’s not probably going to be very dangerous for a child to walk from the middle school to Starbucks in the town of Chappaqua,” she explains. “It’s way more dangerous for them to be online and get connected to some sort of predator.”
“You’re kind of taking away from your kid the ability to build interpersonal skills and critical thinking skills,” she adds. “When we were growing up, we didn’t have a phone.”

But for parents who want to be able to reach their children without their kids having access to social media and the online world’s myriad evils, there are options like a “dumbphone” with basic functions like text messaging, a calculator, and an alarm.

Cohen, Goldman, and Kornblau all see support for their cause growing. Chappaqua’s chapter of OK to Delay has more than 400 subscribers, and Cohen believes the statewide cell phone ban has helped. The Armonk has a 1,000 person distribution list, and 110 local families have pledged to wait until at least eighth grade for social media or smartphones through the organization’s website, oktodelayarmonk.org.

“There is a good deal of momentum around this issue all around the country,” notes Kornblau. “It is very high on the list of topics of conversation among parents of kids from eight to fifteen. It’s one of the hardest things that I think our generation of parents is dealing with.”

In the longer term, the organizers hope to do more than expanding their organization. Cohen and Kornblau each have younger children still in elementary school.

“Our goal is that by the time those kids are going into middle school, they don’t even need OK to Delay anymore,” Cohen says. “This is like a topic of the past. That’s a goal for me.”

John Berman: A Father/CNN Anchor in Turbulent Times

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For most American news consumers, the past decade or so has felt like a never-ending rollercoaster ride. For a news anchor and correspondent like Armonk resident John Berman, who co-anchors CNN’s morning news program, it has made the last few years downright frenetic.

“I can’t remember the last time things were slow. Every time something unprecedented happens, as soon as that thing is over, something else unprecedented happens,” Berman tells Inside Armonk. “It’s tiring, but on the other hand, it’s exhilarating.”

Berman has been covering the news for roughly three decades – beginning his career with ABC News in 1995 and joining CNN in 2012. In 2011, Berman and his family – he and his wife have 18-year-old twin boys – moved to Armonk from New York City.

The news business has changed dramatically – and continuously – over Berman’s career. When he joined ABC News as a desk assistant in 1995, the network did not yet have a website. When he joined CNN in 2012, few had heard of a podcast. And even in 2018, when Berman appeared on the cover of this magazine, Substack was still an unknown newcomer to the industry.

Today, Berman resides in a media environment in which the options are endless, and consumers can always find a news source to support their views. This, Berman acknowledges, can make it harder to reach people.

“People do retreat to their silos much more quickly than they ever have before,” Berman says. “When they are there, they’re in a little bit of an echo chamber and they don’t hear any differing opinions.”

Berman, who co-anchors CNN News Central from 7-10 a.m. weekdays with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner, sees his job as mostly unchanged. While his network – and both cable news and linear television more broadly – have had to find ways to adjust to changing news habits, Berman’s job remains focused on the journalistic output.

“Our job is to try to just tell people what’s going on and present it as is, and then let them absorb it how they like,” he explains. “If I could hold down the fort with the news every day from 7 to 10, then it lets the people who are trying to figure out how to reach new audiences do that.”

‘Straight News Doesn’t Have to be Boring’

While news consumers’ shift towards news sources that reflect their worldview is a real trend, Berman believes it only tells part of the story.

“CNN’s bread and butter is breaking news,” Berman says. “When things really are happening and it is breaking, for better or worse, people do want to come to CNN still. No matter what Substack they read, no matter what newsletters they’re associated with, no matter which TikTok videos, if there’s something live-breaking, and we have cameras there, they will still come to us in big numbers.”

As a news journalist, Berman sees his role as simply to inform, not opine, on the topics of the day.

“One of the things that my show does well is focus on what’s new when people wake up in the morning without spending lots of time complaining about something that happened three or four days ago,” he says. “We’re trying to look forward as much as we can.”

But unopinionated does not mean uninteresting, he adds.

“Straight news doesn’t have to be boring,” he says. “I think news is inherently compelling, and our job is to present it in a compelling way.”

A New Perspective

When Berman’s family moved to Armonk, his twin sons were preparing to enter kindergarten. Both recently turned 18, and hearing how they process the news and world events has become another source of insight for Berman.

“It actually helps because I start seeing the world through their eyes more,” Berman says. “They give me a new perspective. They weren’t old enough to vote in the last election because they just turned 18, but I was very much interested in how they were seeing it and what they were hearing.”

Berman has no plans to leave Armonk once his boys have graduated. An avid runner, he enjoys being a bit removed from city life.

“I love the woods. I love the hills,” he says. “I should add, when I say I love the hills, I mostly love the concept of the hills. I live in Windmill, which is a beautiful, close-knit community, but it is like the Alps. I might be getting too old to run up and down the hills every day. Can’t there be somewhere flat around here?”

And professionally, Berman says he looks forward to continuing in the morning spot. The role has allowed him to cover history-changing events in recent years, from wars to elections.

“I was in Ukraine not long after Russia invaded, and I was in awe of the determination and the resilience of the Ukrainian people,” he says. “We’ve had some absolutely compelling elections and wild swings in politics, and that’s always thrilling.”

Berman was briefly moved from the morning timeslot after Chris Licht was named CEO of the network in February 2022. Licht’s tenure didn’t last long – he parted ways with the network in June 2023 – and Berman was returned to the 7 a.m. slot last year.

CNN News Central is now in one of its better stretches, Berman says, noting that his show beat MSNBC’s Morning Joe in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic in January and February.

“If you look at the cable news landscape, I think we are the one most committed to actually presenting the news and presenting the news in a fairly unvarnished way,” Berman says.

With a new administration in office this year, Berman says he is fascinated to see how the economy responds to a period of uncertainty. And he looks forward to covering the outcome of truce negotiations in Ukraine, as well as how both parties and the electorate respond to Trump’s presidency.

“I’m actually having one of the better times of my life right now,” says Berman. “So, I just want to hang on for dear life and savor the moment and keep it going as long as I can.”

Why Gross Motor Skills are the First Step to Lifelong Learning

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PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON

From infancy on, development of gross motor skills is essential for a child’s physical and mental growth. The directors of World Cup Schools which includes World Cup Gymnastics and World Cup Nursery School & Kindergarten in Chappaqua believe gymnastics is the best way to ensure success, and some experts in children’s development agree.

For parents wondering how long to wait before working on their child’s gross motor skills, the answer, experts say, is the length of the drive home from the hospital.

“Tummy time is the foundation for all future development,” says Hayley Apiscopa, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the co-owner of Developmental Steps. “Parents are encouraged to start tummy time right when they get home from the hospital, and that is to balance out the time these babies spend on their backs sleeping.”

From infancy to adolescence, gross motor skills play a major role in a child’s development, says Apiscopa, who teaches a class on tummy time three times a month. And a parent’s role in making sure their child is developing these skills and hitting the important milestones starts the baby’s first week.

“Every position is setting a child up for the next milestone that is to come,” says Dr. Dana Smith, the owner of Westchester Physical Therapy.

While there are many activities that can be helpful for gross motor skill development, both Apiscopa and Smith point to gymnastics and swimming as two of the best ways to promote this development.

“Both of those sports really help build core strength, balance, and coordination,” says Apiscopa.

Developing children’s gross motor skills is one major focus for Jason Hebert, director of World Cup Gymnastics and Roxanne Kaplan, director of World Cup Nursery School & Kindergarten. In their more than two decades each at World Cup, they have seen every level of athlete come through their doors, from future Olympians to kids struggling to keep up with their peers. But in one way, Hebert says, the focus remains the same.

“Whatever a child is capable of doing, we are here to let them reach their maximum potential,” he explained. “Whether this is just a fun thing for them to help them for later in life, or whether they aspire to be an Olympic gymnast.”

World Cup Schools, which has been at its current location just off the Saw Mill River Parkway for some 32 years, has both a preschool and a recreational afterschool program, as well as a competitive girls and boys team. There is a “Romperee” program for children four to 36 months, a preschool program for children two to five years, and a recreational program for children up to 12 years old. Olympians including artistic gymnast and 2012 US national champion John Orozco, have trained at its facilities.

For babies and toddlers, both the Romperee and preschool program provide ample opportunities for tykes to both test and improve their gross motor skills. The school has a different lesson plan for each age group, allowing children to progress at their own pace. Children as young as four months will start with sensory activities, where they are introduced to different colors, music, bubbles, and balls to hold. They then move on to mini trampolines, mini bars, and runs.

When they turn two, they graduate to the bigger gym, where they start working with custom preschool equipment and then move on to larger equipment. That includes adult-sized trampolines, bars, and rings. Kids are able to progress at a safe and comfortable pace.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON

“As students develop physically, building strength and enhancing their sensory skills, they are also learning to overcome obstacles and face their fears. Every activity is a building block,” says Hebert, who has worked at the gym for three decades. “Our approach isn’t one-dimensional; everything we do helps children grow in ways they’ll need in all aspects of life.”

While children are often nervous initially, it isn’t long before they are testing their skills, Hebert notes. He recalls introducing children to the foam pits. At first they are afraid of even the six-inch drop, but before long they are jumping from much higher platforms into the pit.

“Because everything is padded and soft, they could take those chances and not have to worry about the fear factor as much,” he says.

When it comes to developmental milestones, Kaplan agrees that parents should be focused on making sure their child is achieving them from Day 1.

“We have the unique advantage of observing child development and milestones on a daily basis, and with so many children to compare, we can identify when a child may be falling behind,” explains Kaplan, who has worked at World Cup for 23 years. “This puts us in a position to give them the extra attention they may need in their development or encourage parents to have their child evaluated, so they can receive the additional support they may need.”

Meeting the Milestones

For many parents, waiting for their child to take their first steps or begin crawling can be a cause of great anxiety. While every child is unique and parents should not panic if theirs takes a bit more time to reach each milestone, parents should consult their pediatrician if their child is skipping steps or falling significantly behind, outside of the range of what is normal.

“If they are a certain age and they are not doing something, then we start to say, ‘Maybe you should get evaluated for physical therapy. Something may be going awry,’” says Smith, whose center is also known as Sensory Jim and Friends. “Every position is setting a child up for the next milestone that is to come.”

For example, a baby who does not learn to crawl may not build up the core strength to walk confidently when he or she gets older.

“Frequent falling, lots of tripping and falling, that is not typical for a pre-school aged kid. That is usually a sign of core and hip weakness,” says Apiscopa. “Kids that are constantly up on their tiptoes, that is also a red flag.”

While parents may be tempted to wait and see whether problems correct themselves, intervening early quickens the road to success. Apiscopa recommends that parents with concerns about their child’s gross motor skills contact a physical therapist for a consultation.

Kids who fall behind physically could become socially distant as well.

“If you’re afraid to go to the playground, you may not want to go to birthday parties,” says Smith. “And unfortunately, if milestones are not met, or are not attended to or addressed, we start to see these kids bullied.”

Developmental Steps has a five-page checklist with an overview of milestones children should be meeting, from birth to seven years old. Westchester Physical Therapy has list of red flags for parents to look out for.

“Not all developmental needs require a physical therapist or gym facilities. It’s important to stay mindful of your child’s physical milestones and intentionally incorporate activities into their daily routine that support gross motor development, such as family walks, hikes, and playground climbing. If you notice areas where your child may need additional support or encouragement, consider enrolling them in activities like infant classes, gymnastics, or swimming to further enhance their motor skills. Should you observe any concerning signs, seek early intervention from professionals to ensure timely assistance. Most importantly, make sure to enjoy fun, active moments with your child,” added Kaplan.