12 months-2 years | tbmontessori

By now, children say their first words with meaning
When the child says ‘Dada’, they are calling for dad
There's an explosion of vocabulary
Uses words to talk to you
They enjoy saying the same word over and over or have 'favorite words'
They use a lot of made-up words
The child repeats after you
They understand what you tell them
They can understand more than what they can say
They can follow simple directives like "sit down", "come here", "look outside", etc.
First they’ll understand and say mostly nouns and social words, then adjectives come next, then verbs, adverbs and prepositions.
The child uses a combination of real words, made-up words, sounds and gestures to communicate
Around 15 months, the child will point to things and ask for the name
Around 18 months, the child refers to themselves by their name
They don't start using 'I' until closer to 2 years old
Stringing two words together ‘mummy car’ or ‘me go’, combinations being mainly a noun + verb (dog eat, car go)
Use only a few descriptive words at this age – for example, ‘big’ or ‘red’

By 18 Months:

Pronunciation

By now the child can use a range of sounds to make words
It's normal for toddlers not to pronounce all the sounds or words correctly
Children sometimes use the wrong sound, replacing it by another, like saying 'tat' instead of 'cat'
Some children leave out the end sounds ('ca', instead of 'car')
By the time they are 2 years old, a stranger should be able to understand about half of your child's words

Learning how to have a conversation is part of the language development
Children will often start conversation by drawing attention to something (pointing or asking 'what is that?')
Children can answer simple questions
Children can understand the difference in your tone (a question, a statement)
Children know that you are showing them something, if you point or say 'Look!'
Children start using combination of words, gestures, sounds and tones to make it easier to be understood