Development in 1 year old

[Perpendiculous]

I worry that my one year old dd is behind a bit but I don't really have anyone to compare her to so I might be worrying needlessly and I just wanted to get an idea of what is 'normal'.

She definitely understands quite a few words, she attempts to say some although hasn't nailed any yet. I'm not so worried about this as I know they all pick up language at different rates and it's still quite early.

She doesn't really do activities. I've tried doing puzzles with her, she just sticks the pieces in her mout or crawls off. She has a work bench where you bash the bits through with a hammer and she doesn't show much interest beyond chewing the hammer. I tried showing her how to scribble on a bit of paper with a pen, she tried to eat the pen. I've read on here about baking and cooking with the LO in a high chair. She either throws what I give her on the floor or cries to be picked up. She doesn't show any interest in the various sensory box ideas I've tried out.

She likes looking at books, alone and with me; rolling and throwing balls; and recently has started to show a bit of an interest in watching kid's TV.

Physically I have no worries. She crawls very well. Pulls herself to stand, cruises and walks with a walker. She has started to stand unaided.

Eating is more of a concern. She does eat, but not well, and would happily be 100% breastfed if I let her. She will eat finger foods herself, I spoon feed anything that needs a spoon. I've read that she should be spoon feeding herself but she eats so little I'm worried about disturbing this even more.

My DD is just over a year old. We haven't tried drawing, puzzles or baking, but I think she would be much the same as yours.
She mainly pulls out and looks at her books, puts things in and out of other things, and walks about throwing her ball.
She says a few words but this is so variable at this age I think you are right not to be concerned
With regards to food, we did BLW so DD has always been used to getting a spoon to her mouth but it's preloaded, she doesn't scoop herself, although she us starting too. I would suggest trying this, it's messy but you might find she enjoys it more that way

Thank you Lorna, that is a big relief.

I will give the preloaded spoon a go. I read on another thread the idea of giving the baby a preloaded spoon, while still holding one yourself to ensure they get some food so I might try that.

Your DD sounds like my DS when he was 1, I was quite worried because it felt like everyone else's 1yr olds were doing all of those things. However, it just wasn't true. I could be wrong but when you hear a lot of people saying that their 1yr old is doing puzzles and feeding themselves with a spoon they usually mean very much in the way that your DD is doing so - with the parent doing the activity and the child not engaging an awful lot. Obviously some do, but they are the exception rather than the majority.

Your DD sounds completely normal for her age, she'll start copying what you do soon enough so just keep on doing what you're doing. With regards to food, just give her a spoon which is preloaded and keep feeding her yourself. My DS never saw the importance of feeding himself, he would mess about for ages and then cry with hunger once I'd tidied it all up, it's like he just didn't get that he had to eat what I'd given him and thought that I'd do the feeding. Fast forward a year and my DS is doing all of those things and more, he didn't speak when he was 1 and then had a language explosion at 18 months without any encouragement really.

Your DD sounds like she's doing great :). Try not to worry.

She sounds 100% fine.

I have a 17 month old who says uh-oh, cat, bubbles. That's it. Oh, and he waves and nods/shakes his head.

Can't do puzzles because he's 1, will do some scribbling in between biting the crayon, will play with playdoh (by licking it mostly), likes to turn the pages of/bite board books. He can feed himself with a spoon and fork now though.

Normal normal normal

Sounds very similar to DS who is 12 months.

Well- I haven't given him a jigsaw or a pen because I'm not that optimistic but if I did, he would 100% eat the jigsaw and pen.

Oh and he doesn't do spoons either. He does finger food and if it's porridge or yoghurt I'll feed him. I am aware of blw but I don't have the energy for some parts of it, so this arrangement suits me fine for now.

Thank you everyone, it's good to know she isn't the only one who eats everything put in front of her. Well except for her food which she refuses more and more.

She does do a couple of things, like push buttons where she knows it makes a noise or a light, and as I said I'm pleased with her understanding of, and attempting to say, words.

I have the Wonder Weeks app and it said after he most recent leap she should be doing things like puzzles and drawing. That's what got me worried!

Dd is 17 mo and only very recently started sometimes scribbling rather than chewing the pen, tries occasionally to scoop with the spoon and spear with the fork, putting the peg pieces back on top of the board (still no real attempts to insert correctly) and had great fun getting proper puzzle pieces out of the box and back in the box yesterday.

I found my dd was nearly walking at 1 like your LO, and did start focusing more on fine motor skills and speech once she had mastered walking.