While Your Child is still trying to figure out what certain words and word combinations mean, the little one can now understand and follow simple directions.
Many things children have been learning in the first year of life are represented by the ability to understand and obey simple commands.
While children are still building vocabulary and language skills, they now use cues, such as reading their parent’s emotions and gestures, to respond appropriately to your direction — for example, when you say: “pick up the toy” or “come over here”.
How to support this development
Parents can support this development by talking to their children a lot and assigning clear names to things and people, such as “daddy” and “truck” instead of “him” and “that”. Over time, the little one will be able to associate those names with meaning.
Note: All children develop differently and at their own pace. For children born preterm, the referred timeframe for achieving the various developmental milestones might be incorrect.
Source: The information and graphs about when children reach specific milestones are taken from various sources, including the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Denver Developmental Screening Test, and the State Institute of Early Childhood Research, Germany (IFP).
Ketsupa Jirakarn (Mental health specialist) (11 June 2021)