1 Year Milestones

Language Development is the process by which children come to understand and communicate language during early childhood.  From birth to age five, children develop language at a very rapid pace.  The stages of language development for humans are universal, however the age and the rate at which a child reaches each developmental milestone can vary greatly among children.  A child’s development should not be compared to that of other individual children but rather be compared to norms.  Generally girls develop language at a faster rate than boys.  More than any other aspect of development, language development reflects the growth and maturation of the child’s brain.  For a child after the age of five it becomes much more difficult to learn language.  Early Intervention is critical. A typically developing child usually develops receptive language development (the ability to understand language) faster than expressive language (ability to communicate).

If your child is missing any of the items in the appropriate age milestones, please complete the “Referral Form” or contact us. Early intervention is vital to your child’s speech and language development.

Social/ Emotional

• Is shy or nervous with strangers
• Cries when mom or dad leaves
• Has favorite things and people
• Shows fear in some situations
• Hands you a book when they want to hear a story
• Repeats sounds or actions to get attention
• Plays games such as “peek-a-boo” and “pat-a-cake”

Language/ Communication

• Responds to simple spoken requests
• Uses simple gestures, like shaking head “no” or waving “bye-bye”
• Makes sounds with changes in tone (more like speech)
• Says “mama” and “dada” and exclamations like “uh-oh”
• Tries to say words you say

Cognitive (Learning, Thinking, and Problem-solving)

• Explores things in different ways, like shaking, banging, throwing
• Finds hidden things easily
• Looks at the right picture or things when it’s named
• Copies gestures
• Starts to use objects correctly (e.g. drinks from a cup, brushes hair)
• Bangs two things together
• Puts things in a container, takes things out of a container
• Lets things go without help
• Pokes with index (pointer) finger
• Follows simple directions like “pick up the toy”

Movement/ Physical Development

• Gets to a sitting position without help
• Pulls up to stand, walks holding on to furniture (“cruising”)
• May take a few steps without hold on
• May stand alone