At 12 months your baby has now been a part of your family for a whole year! It’s hard to grasp the fact that they’ve grown, learned and evolved so much in such a short time. Now your baby will take a big step into toddlerhood, which comes with increased mobility and communication, paving the way for more social interactions and exploration!
Independent explorers
At 12 months old, your baby is using all their mobility to explore every corner of your house or the playground, even attempting to crawl up stairs! They are not so shy about experimenting and exploring anymore and will try out all the different ways of accomplishing their goals. Here’s a likely scenario: they crawl up to a purse on the couch, put their hand in to pull things out one-by-one, followed by pulling things out with a handful, finishing off with standing up, purse in hand to turn it over and completely dump all the contents onto the floor. Their fine motor skills and gross motor skills will begin to work in sync. They can now stand, squat, stand, cruise along a couple steps and do it all over again, while transferring a small object between their fingertips! Make sure you give them plenty of opportunities to practice transferring from one container to another (like shown in this activity) on low surfaces like a coffee table.
Exploring the senses
They are curious about exploring with their senses too! They will show preferences for some textures, smells and flavors, and rejection or timidness to others. You might have given them the opportunity to explore with sensory play before the twelve month mark, and now that they are mobile they’ll be eager to explore these textures by their own means, maybe pulling up to stand and digging their hand into the tree pot, or up to your pet’s water and food bowl to splash and spill it all over. Eating time has probably gotten more successful with your child willing to squish and taste all the food you offer. Try out this sensory play activity with chia!
You might also notice them exploring with sound! Since they started babbling, they are aware of their vocal attempts and may try different vocalizations like a shout, a string of babbles that sound like talking, or a kind of sing-song. You might notice some days your baby is ‘talking’ in their crib before they call you to get them. They will also be busy exploring how objects sound when banging or tapping them. Check out this fun idea to motivate your child to practice their “talking” skills.
Words have meaning!
These new verbalizations come hand in hand with trying to imitate sounds or syllables you say like ‘pa’ or ‘ta’. Their language comprehension has now reached another level: if the word ‘no’ would just be followed by a quick pause to then continue what they were doing, now it might be followed with tears of frustration because they fully understand the concept of prohibition. They will also get excited when they hear you talk about ‘food’ or ‘bath’, and maybe walk towards their bookshelf when they hear the word ‘bedtime’. Every baby is different and some might have a more notorious reaction than others to specific words or sentences. They will also begin to understand three word phrases and common commands like ‘Sit down, please’ or ‘pass the ball!’. How do you know they understand it? because they’ll sit down or hand you the ball! Check out this activity for more guidance.
If your baby hasn’t said their first word yet, they might do so at 12 months.
Here’s how to tell if it’s a word or not:
- They said the same thing to mean something specific.
- They said it on their own without having to directly copy someone.
- They said the word 3 times or more.
Once you can confirm all 3 statements, then it’s most definitely an official word in their soon-to-grow vocabulary. Check out this activity for some great tips to help them master their words!
12 Month Milestones List:
- Crawls up stairs
- Extends arm or leg to help when being dressed
- Goes from standing up to squatting
- Stays balanced while standing up and playing with an object
- Moves small objects from one container to another using their forefinger and thumb
- Stops a rolling ball with their hands or body
- Tries to imitate words you say
- Imitates a syllable pronounced by someone else (says “pa” after you do)
- Understands three-word phrases, such as “Look, the dog!”
- Gives you an object when you ask for it
Play activities from our catalog to help your baby master their new skills:
Can you reach the sticky note?
