6-12 months

This is a guide to how children develop speech and language between 6 months and 1 year.

Children develop skills at different rates, but by 1 year, usually children will:

• Listen carefully, and turn to someone talking on the other side of the room.
• Look at you when you speak and when their name is called.
• Babble strings of sounds, like ‘no-no’ and ‘go-go’.
• Make noises, point and look at you to get your attention.
• Smile at people who are smiling at them.
• Start to understand words like 'bye-bye' and 'up' especially when a gesture is used at the same time.
• Recognise the names of familiar objects, things like ‘car’ and ‘daddy’.
• Enjoy action songs and rhymes and get excited when sung to.
• Take turns in conversations, babbling back to an adult.