How much does your 18 month understand?

[Hellohello1234]

Hi all, I just wondered how much an 18 month old should understand. I only ask as I've heard some people say their 18 month olds understand everything. I have an almost 18 month old and he seems to understand -

Lots of single words i.e. I will say 'where's the xxx' and he will point to it
Most body parts - will touch the part on himself or me when I name it
He will point to some pictures in books when I say where's the xxxxxx
Commands such as 'give it to mummy', 'sit down' 'lie down', 'come here', can I have a cheerio, let's go for your bath (will go to bottom of stairs), put your do-do in your bed, goes to high hair when I say do you want breakfast/lunch/dinner, has just started crouching up and down when he hears the line in wheels on the bus for children going up and down, put your nappy in the bin.

And quite often with the commands he will ignore me, but I assume that's when he's not in the mood as he complies at other times!

But he certainly doesn't understand everything. Is this normal?

[HalfStar]

Well it sounds like he understands quite a lot really! When people say 'understands everything' they probably mean the kind of stuff your ds is responding to.

[skankingpiglet]

DD is 19mo, and she understands pretty much everything I say to her, but I'm certainly not discussing world politics. More 'Please can you pick up you clothes and put them in the washing basket?'. Like your DS, she has very selective hearing, so only responds if she's in the mood and it suits her (She's been taking lessons from the cat).
Your son sounds normal to me.

[Hellohello1234]

Thanks for your replies! I think my LO understands quite a lot, he surprises me every day at the moment. He's just in the last few days starting answering no to almost every question I ask him, so when before I was saying its bath time and he'd run to the bottom of the stairs he now just replies 'no' and carries on with what he's doing!

[Plateofcrumbs]

Mine is 17.5 months and doesn't understand that much - maybe half of that! And I get ignored a lot even when I know he understands.

[Dakinired]

Sounds weird but my very first memories are from when I was around 18 months. I was admitted to hospital with whooping cough and put in an oxygen tent. I have very powerful memories of it but didn't find out until years later what had happened and what the memories actually were. I remember how big everything was and how tall the nurses felt when they carried me around. How cold the metal potties were. Its hard to do it justice describing it now. But if my memories are in any way accurate then most of what 18 month old children understand is body language, atmospheres, an intense feeling of being completely dependant on adults, zero concept of time and no awareness of anything apart from what's happening right now. I think I understood some words but the atmosphere, body language, colours and physical sensations were what I remember focusing on.