Speech / Language

Children 8-12  months generally are able to do the following:

Receptive Language:

• Responds to “no” 
• Makes simple gestures such as shaking head for no 
• Responds to one or two simple routine verbalizations (e.g., attempts to raise arms when asked, “Want to come up?”) 
• Looks at people and objects as they are named
• Begins to participate in games and songs 
• Recognizes objects when named  
• Responds to spoken “bye-bye” by waving

Expressive Language:

• Babbles with sentence-like intonation 
• Attempts to imitate speech sounds and inflections 
• Uses name approximations for familiar caregivers (e.g., “mama”, “dada”) 
• Says at least one simple word (e.g. “uh-oh”) 
• Uses sounds, babbling, and/or gestures to get attention, comment, request and/or protest
• Claps when prompted by caregiver or situation 
• Begins pointing

Speech Intelligibility:

• Babbles  “dada” and “mama”