Your 1-year-old : Week 3

Your 1-year-old: Week 3

Your toddler now

Beyond babbling

It's an exciting time when, after months of babbling, your child begins to form recognizable words. It's not an overnight process, and the pace varies significantly from child to child. One thing is sure, though: He understands far more than he can say. Some things to watch for now:

Gestures that speak louder than words. Your toddler may be a man of few words but speaking up a storm in gestures, like raised arms for "up" or a pointed finger for "What's that?" Children who learned sign language as babies are especially "fluent."
Words with many meanings. An early word like "joos" may mean "I'm thirsty for milk," "No, I want water," or "Hey! I dropped my bottle!" Listen to the inflection. He'll say the same word in different ways and using different gestures.
Words from everyday life. Perhaps not surprisingly, your child's first words probably relate to things in his immediate life: "Mama" and "Dada" and other favorite people or pets, or words having to do with eating ("baba" for bottle), sleeping ("nite-nite"), possessions ("ba" for bear), or desires ("up").

Big dangers for small fingers

Your toddler's pincer grasp is probably well developed by now, so he can pick up small objects between his thumb and forefinger fairly easily. He may enjoy practicing this skill on any little thing he finds on the floor, which is a lot closer and more visible to his keen eyes than it is to yours.

Be extra careful about small but potentially dangerous little items that fall to the floor without adults noticing, such as vitamins and other pills, pieces of food (and pet food), pushpins from the bulletin board, tiny toy parts used by older siblings, and so on. They could end up in your child's mouth.

Posted in: Toddler : 1 year old