Twelve Month Visit
Milestones Matter
How your child plays, learns, speaks, acts, and moves offers important clues about his or her development. Check the milestones your child has reached by 12 months.
What Most Children Do By This Age
Socal / Emotional
- Is shy or nervous with strangers
- Cries when mom or dad leaves
- Has favorite things and people camera
- Shows fear in some situations
- Hands you a book when he wants to hear a story camera
- Repeats sounds or actions to get attention
- Puts out arm or leg to help with dressing
- Plays games such as “peek-a-boo” and “pat-a-cake”
Language / Communication
- Responds to simple spoken requests
- Uses simple gestures, like shaking head “no” or waving “bye-bye”
- Makes sounds with changes in tone (sounds more like speech)
- Says “mama” and “dada” and exclamations like “uh-oh!”
- Tries to say words you say
Cognitive
Learning, Thinking, Problem-solving
- Explores things in different ways, like shaking, banging, throwing
- Finds hidden things easily
- Looks at the right picture or thing when it is named
- Copies gestures
- Starts to use things correctly, for example, drinks from a cup, brushes hair
- Bangs two things together
- Puts things in a container, takes things out of a container
- Let’s things go without help
- Pokes with index (pointer) finger
- Follows simple directions like “pick up the toy”
Movement / Physical Developement
- Gets to a sitting position without help
- Pulls up to stand, walks holding on to furniture (“cruising”)
- May take a few steps without holding on
- May stand alone
Feeding & Elimination
- Most have mastered finger foods and enjoy them
- Encourage your child to drink from a cup rather that a bottle
- Proceed slowly in introducing whole milk. Gradually increase the volume of milk while decreasing the volume of formula. Observe for reaction such as rashes, vomiting or diarrhea.
- Your child should not take more than 24 ounces per day of whole milk since it is not iron fortified. Encourage a balanced diet.
- You may notice that your child has become pickier about food choices. This is normal. Continue to offer healthy choices and promote a relaxed eating environment.
- It is normal for children to eat less on some days and make up for it on another day.
- Stool frequency and consistency continues to vary with diet. Let us know if your child has hard stools on a regular basis.
- If child has hard stools try increasing water intake, give diluted pasteurized apple juice mixed with water, prune juice, plums, and apricots.
- Rice, applesauce, and bananas tend to constipate.
Your Child Knows Best
Act Early
If you have concerns about the way your child plays, learns, speaks, acts, or moves, or if your child:
- Does not crawl
- Cannot stand when supported
- Does not search for things that she sees you hide
- Does not say single words like “mama” or “dada”
- Does not learn gestures like waving or shaking head
- Does not point to things
- Loses skills he once had