Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

What would you expect a 12 month old to be able to do?

30 replies

mummytosteven · 27/03/2005 17:33

My mum - sigh - is worried that DS isn't walking or talking yet beyond the occasional no/bye-bye. Ds babbles, crawls, sits and cruises, and pulls up, and walks with a walker, just not unaided. Apparently I was a lot more advanced at talking when I was his age.

Please reassure me that I shouldn't be even worrying about worrying until at least 18 months!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

oooggs · 27/03/2005 17:35

DS was the same at 12 mths. Now at 15 mths he has been walking 2 weeks.

Hulababy · 27/03/2005 17:35

He sounds completely normal and on track to me. All babies are completely different anyway.

I think our parents tend to remember back with rose tinted glasses, and very muddled dates!

Libb · 27/03/2005 17:37

I agree with the glasses and muddled dates theory. My parents struggle to remember my age so I pay no attention to their versions of what I was doing at 12 months!

jane313 · 27/03/2005 17:39

Loads of children don't walk till 18 months. I think the average is about 13 months.

As for talking. Mine barely said any words at 12 months (althought he often said a word 2 or 3 times then never again). There are tons of threads about speech cos I got a bit paranoid too when I had friends kids recite whole nursery rhymes. Theres also lots of info here about how pointing (especially at things you haven't seen, ie pointing out them out to you)) is a more important than speech in the 12-24 months stage.

Yorkiegirl · 27/03/2005 17:42

Message withdrawn

Catbert · 27/03/2005 17:42

TALKING? at 12 months???

I would consider a child walking at 12 months an early walker... I have known earlier walkers, but out of 8 children in my group of ante natal mums, only onw managed to take his first tottery steps in the week preceding his first birthday,

Your DS sounds exactly like my DD2. I am not concerned in the slightest. I am not even expecting her to take her first steps for at least another 2 months (she is very like DD1 in her development, although she crawled a bit later...)

One friends mother swears she potty trained her at 9 months. I had to stifle my snigger

Nemo1977 · 27/03/2005 17:44

MTS you know all tots are completely different. S is the most sociable and smiley baby I know. He is obviously strong enough as he is able to crawl and cruise, and as u know Adam has only started to make any sense with words in the past few weeks before that it was literally a grunt [and still is a lot of the time].S seems completely normal to me so I wouldnt stress

morningpaper · 27/03/2005 17:46

My daughter said about 6 words by her first birthday and I thought she was bloody Einstein.

Mums tend to exaggerate ...

pinotgrigio · 27/03/2005 17:47

It's all quite true. I wouldn't worry in the slightest. Your DS sounds fine.

DD was the most un-coordinated baby in the world - couldn't sit up without keeling over for months after all her peers could. She then surprised us all by walking at 12 months (she still falls over all the time now though), but has only just started speaking now at 2.4. I had a complete stress-fest about her speech, but just like everybody said "it's like somebody turned a switch on". One day nothing, the next day she was all chat.

fuzzywuzzy · 27/03/2005 17:50

Dd1 absoloutely point blank refuse to walk till she was well past the 12 month mark, much to my fil's chagrin, he wanted to see his granddaughter take her first step. She had other ideas....

Original poster

mummytosteven · 27/03/2005 18:15

wow everyone - didn't think I'ld have any replies on a quiet Sunday! thanks all for confirming what I thought - that 12 months is far too early to expect our little one to be doing much.

allegedly when I was 12 months I said to my mum that an egg was hot..... I do wonder if she's got the years wrong and its 24 months(!).

OP posts:

jane313 · 27/03/2005 18:39

hot can be one of the first words though! I kept saying it when my son went to the radiator, tried to grab my cofee, touched the oven, ate food etc. So it is one of his first few words. It was the first word of a friend of a friend's son too. He accidently phoned 999 and then said it!

clary · 31/03/2005 07:58

mts just wanted to add to this re walking; a lot of people (not you i don't mean! but maybe yr mum) seem to assume that 12mo is average for walking...actually it's early, the (mean) average is 15 mo and the range is 9mo to 20mo.
If he is cruising etc he sounds fine.

throckenholt · 31/03/2005 08:19

that is exactly the sort of things mine were doing at that age. They all walked by about 14 months, and dind't do any real words until after 18 months.

Have friends whose kids were ahead and behind mine. Yours sound well withing the range of "normal".

By the way - grandmothers all seem to have kids that walked at 6 months and were potty trained at 18 months and spoke sentences at 20 months ......

lunavix · 31/03/2005 09:19

my ds (12 months in april) can babble mumumum, babababa and favavava (no dadada as of yet, and he doesn't mean much by the babble either.)

He can also push himself to stand (on a low step) stand holding on to things, crawl at a rather fast speed and sit.

He can't walk with a walker, although he's not too bad if you hold his hands. He can't walk in a baby walker either, only backwards! He can pull himself up in the bath (handles) but not on the sofa or on a walker, and he hasn't shown any interest in cruising!

Newbarnsleygirl · 31/03/2005 09:24

My dd now coming up to 18 months was walking on her first birthday but has yet to say her first word!

Your ds sounds perfect MTS.

PiccadillyCircus · 31/03/2005 09:27

At 12 months DS was cruising (had been for months - everyone kept saying that he would walk soon) and crawling like a mad thing.

No urge to walk until he was 15 months. Now he is 16 months and galloping about all over the place.

He definitely didn't say anything when he was 12 months. Now at 16 months there are a few words and recently I have seen his understanding go up in leaps and bounds.

So your DS is fine

LucyJones · 31/03/2005 09:28

My ds is one on Saturday and has only just started crawling let alone walking. And just babbles too, no words yet.

Bozza · 31/03/2005 09:28

All different. DD - 1 on 15 May - can pull up on most things (step, sofa, bath side, me, dishwahser door etc) but doesn't move much when up and can't get back down. She in the last couple of days as started crawling but uses one knee and one foot so not very efficient.

She can't talk beyond mummuumm which does seem to mean me and "ber" which means DS (name begins with B). If we give her a dolly to cuddle she says "ahhh" which we have taught her. Has just started pointing occasionally but very good at waving and clapping. Favourite game peek-a-boo which she initiates herself with discarded clothing usually.

coldtea · 31/03/2005 09:38

My ds walked at 14 1/2 months & dd walked at 11 months. Once they start you soon wish they hadn't! Enjoy the moment now.

My friends ds didn't walk till he was 16 months & didn't say a word till he was well over 2 where my ds said loads. My ds ended up at a speech therapist & her ds had adult like language & pronounciation! Just shows what they do in their early years has no real reflection of what they will do later.

dot1 · 31/03/2005 10:24

Our ds1 was walking by 10 months but didn't say a word until he was 17 months.

Ds2 can pull himself up but is nowhere near walking I'd say - hasn't got the balance - but all of a sudden this week has got about 5 - 6 words and phrases!

They're all so different at this age - but looking at ds1 and his friends (all aged between 3 - 4) they tend to even out and are all doing more or less the same things, even though at 12 months they were vastly different..!

ghosty · 31/03/2005 10:56

Hello Mummytosteven ...
My DD is 14 mths on Sunday ...
At 12 months she was bumshuffling and not making any attempt to pull herself up or walk or anything like that and I was beginning to wander if she would still be bumshuffling at 5 ..
She started to pull herself up 2 weeks ago and is now getting adventurous and starting to cruise round the furniture.
As for talking, she has 3 words ... 'Daddy', 'Teddy' (DS' name), and 'Didit' (her dummy). She says Daddy for everything ... and sometimes says Mama ... that is it!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with her development ... she knows what she wants and how to get it

Original poster

mummytosteven · 31/03/2005 11:04

thanks loads everyone. just sometimes there's nothing like family for undermining what you know that you know!

OP posts:

wordsmith · 31/03/2005 11:12

MTS, don't worry. Once mothers become grandmothers they forget everything that ever happened when they were mothers of tiny children. Scientific fact. My mother swears me and my 2 brothers were as good as gold, but I can remember fighting like cats and dogs most of my childhood. We ate everything, never had sleeping problems, were potty trained by 12 months (!!! basically meaning we sat on the potty all day.) We were all as bright as bright can be.

Your 12 mo sounds normal to me. Mine is 1 yr old next week and says nothing intelligible. He says ma-ma and da-da and na-na, but they don't mean mummy, daddy and nanny, they're just sounds! He crusies everywhere and pushes a truck of bricks, but doesn't walk unaided yet. DS1 started walking at 13mo.

Rowlers · 31/03/2005 11:31

DD turned 1 last week and has been walking unaided for 3-4 weeks now. No words as such though - just lots of babble. Interested in the pointing thing, she's doing that a lot at the mo. I have to admit I hadn't really thought about what she should be doing when. She seems ok to me, alert and interested in everything around her.
She didn't crawl much at all, maybe a few days. So sat on her bum for months and watched. She made the transition to walking very quickly - so if she doesn't speak for ages yet, so be it. She'll do it when she's ready to.

Flip

1 2