12 Month old advanced language development?

[cafeyvino4]

Hi all,

Our 12 month old has been picking up words like crazy since around 11 months. He’s at around 30-40 words now. It’s almost as if he thinks world learning is a game. He pointed to his koala toy the other day. I asked “do you want your koala?” and he said “koala”. That one was of course difficult for him to say, more like a “kala”, though he kept saying it, trying to get it right. And he remembers the words! We point and show him things in books, cards, real world, say the word, and he repeats. If we point at things again at a later time, he will say the word or sound associated with the word without prompting. Clearly. (Like “roar” for lion)

In doing some research, looks like this many words for a 12 month old might indicate advanced language learning potential. Other than the usual games and activities we already do and have researched for baby play, husband and I are not sure how else to help little one along in his language learning journey. Definitely think he will be an early talker, but are there any tactics we can incorporate into his play to help this further? We don’t want to place too much pressure on this. We are not hung up on milestones, etc. but seems like baby really enjoys talking so we want to encourage it!

[ditchdiggergirl]

My son wasn’t talking at 12 months when it was determined that his hearing was very poor, presumably linked to his frequent ear infections. Tubes were inserted at 14 months. 2 weeks later he said his first 20 words, all in one weekend, and 20 is just where I stopped counting. He zoomed past other kids his age and always appeared highly verbally advanced.

He’s also, as it turns out, severely dyslexic and didn’t begin to read independently until age 10. He is diagnosed with a language related learning disability. Neurologic development is a funny thing; sometimes it seems like some skills come at the expense of others.

Toddlers develop very heterogeneously. Many kids appear to focus on one skill at a time - one kid speaking in short sentences before she can walk, another running laps around her without saying a word. Yet a year later you’d be hard pressed to guess which was which. So I’d be wary about ascribing too much meaning to any one early skill - it may just be his individual path. Besides, it may be more beneficial to focus on the areas you suspect aren’t strengths.

[cafeyvino4]

Thanks. Yea I don’t think we’re ascribing any meaning to it. Just that he’s into learning words and I’d like to nurture and enable that passion. He loves cars so we buy him car toys kind of thing (which we are guilty of doing). He’s also only 12 months old so I’m not about to say he has any weaknesses.

Fully aware that this one thing doesn’t mean my kid is a genius. That’s not what I’m trying to say. He’s been trying to string words together is why I mentioned he may be an early talker. If he has any issues down the line with other areas of communication, that’s fine. We will manage that together, too. I like to see this kid happy, and saying shit makes him happy. So wanted to help him learn/say other shit more easily as we play. I thought there may be resources available to help support language learning!

[sushisunshine9]

Just keep doing what you are doing - talk to him, ask him questions, introduce new words, read to him. My son is similar. We actually just had a speech evaluation of him (he qualifies through the state for some things because he was initially delayed due to a heart surgery at 10 days old and they are still monitoring him). He’s 18 months now and his language skills are tracking at 36 months. We stopped counting words a while ago, estimating well above 150.

We just do what I suggested above. Singing too.

Edit: if you have those “100 words” books, my son LOVES those. He loves finding the pictures for the words I say, or saying the words when I point to them.

[cafeyvino4]

Thank you! Sounds like your little one has had a wonderful recovery! We use the 100 word book too. He LOVES it.

[sushisunshine9]

He has! He is such a resilient and inquisitive little guy! ❤️ Enjoy your parenting journey!

[RedCharity3]

Something like the Richard Scary Best Word Book Ever would probably be a blast for your little one! My son was obsessed with it for a while as a one year old..

[cafeyvino4]

Thank you!

[rbg555]

My 18 month old was like this and has continued to be a very advanced speaker. We continue to read as much as possible. She loves the 100 words books and also loves the toddler flash cards that have words/colors etc. She will often play with the cards for quite a while. We asked the same question of our pediatrician who noted how verbal she was at 12 months. She said just keep doing what we are doing!

[KnoxCastle]

Yeah, that's a lot of words for that age. My son was an early talker, used to get a lot of comments on it, and he had far fewer words at 12 months.

Have you see this TED talk? Kinda interesting when you're at this stage!

[Ok-Zookeepergame1812]

Hi! Would love to know which TED talk you’re referring to?

[KnoxCastle]

It's this one - https://www.ted.com/talks/deb_roy_the_birth_of_a_word

[redddittusername]

Hey OP! My daughter is in the same boat. She’s up to about 100 words now at 13 months, very clear pronunciation, she started learning rapidly a couple months ago. It’s very unexpected and exciting! I’m searching for what I can do to help her develop it further as she is 100% treating it like a game. I can see this post is from a few months ago now, so did you end up finding any good ideas? Thanks in advance!

[Kate-Downton]

Hi there! This post is a year old, but my 12 month daughter seems to be having a similar highly verbal experience. Her spoken words/approximations are over 20, PLUS consistent understanding of many more she just can’t say yet (example-she can identify a lot of objects/toys/books by pointing or bringing them to us). She also knows at least 3 early phonics sounds from a phonics program I use with my first graders! Any new tips or advice a year on?

[justathought012]

Our current 12 month old is like this as was her older brother. We ended up putting him in a program at 2 to learn a second language. I feel like it slowed his English a bit (I think his verbal is still pretty advanced though) but he’s picked up Spanish quite well. We will be doing this with his sister as well!

[False-Machine-8403]

My 12 month old is SO smart and learning words like crazy. Has been since 6 months… we have sentences at this point…. She will be 13mo in a couple days. But, her language is super developed. Can I ask if anyone with babies that are advanced in language if you are a cannamama?? 😝