Understanding Your Toddler’s Cognitive Milestones
A typical 12-month-old toddler will have already acquired lots of mental skills, or cognitive milestones. And between his 12th and 23rd months, he’ll be picking up more and more.
By the time your toddler turns one, he may have reached many early childhood development milestones, including:
Responding to his name
Understanding a handful of words
The ability to murmur a few of his own simple words, such as “mama” and “papa”
Pointing to objects
The ability to wave good-bye
An attempt to imitate animal sounds
You can keep your active toddler engaged in the world around him through certain types of play, such as reading picture books to reinforce names of objects and taking him to the zoo or park to experience something new. Engaging activities such as these will help him reach cognitive milestones throughout his second year.
Around this time, your toddler will probably also begin to be able to:
Realize that objects exist even when he can’t see them
Find things in pictures when asked
Follow easy directions
Demonstrate an understanding of colors and shapes
Show an increase in his memory skills
In order to strengthen these skills as your child grows, pick games that encourage him to use his memory, like a matching game, and be sure to schedule lots of playdates for him so he can work on his social skills as well.
Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash
by Cheryl Lock
Baby Milestones
Toddler Play