Many parents are concerned about how fully their baby grows and develops. As soon as the child turns 16 months old, most dads and mothers begin to actively take an interest in the question of what skills the child should have at this time, asking it to his relatives or friends, whose children have grown up for a long time.
Physical development
Regardless of gender, a baby at the age of 16 months should be able to move independently and even run. Moreover, some children at this age are able not only to walk confidently, but also to overcome small obstacles. Holding onto the support, some children even dance, which has a positive effect on strengthening muscles and developing coordination of movements.
At 16 months, children easily respond to requests, help dad or mom, and actively imitate them. At this stage of life, a child can cope with simple tasks - to give or take an object, take or put something. It is worth considering that the child's already existing stock of skills allows him to distinguish various objects that need to be taken or transferred from other things in the room.
Speech, communication and emotions
By the age of 16 months, the child's speech takes on meaningful forms. Instead of incomprehensible babbling, the child can pronounce short and simple words, one way or another related to the situation. For example, seeing a dog, a child at 16 months will pronounce the word "Abaca" clearly aloud and point to the animal. As psychologists say, the vocabulary of a baby at a given age can vary greatly from 10 to 60 words.
There are times when a child begins to speak much later than the specified period. In this case, it makes sense for parents to pay attention to this. Expressive reading of poetry will help stimulate the development of speech. Simple lines of a poem are easier for a child to perceive than long and complex sentences.
A good stimulus for the development of speech in a child is a joint reading of illustrated children's books. Studying colorful and vivid pictures, and at the same time listening to mother's or father's expressive story, the baby learns to assimilate information both by ear and visually.
The simplest useful exercises from the complex of articulatory gymnastics will allow you to develop the crumbs' speech apparatus and teach him to correctly pronounce sounds. According to speech therapists, by the age of two the baby can already learn to pronounce correctly the sounds "P" and "B", "M" and "N", "A", "O".
While reading books, encourage the child to try to say a particular word by pointing him to the object to which the word refers. It is worth remembering that the speed of speech development in children is significantly different from their memory abilities: it happens that children very quickly memorize objects and their names, but at the same time have difficulty with their correct pronunciation. At this stage, the range of emotions also expands: for example, when experiencing dissatisfaction or resentment, the baby can show them with displeased and angry intonation, often accompanying them with facial expressions, which children at 16 months actively use to express their emotions when communicating.
Household skills
At the age of 16 months, most children learn to spoon-feed delicious foods such as mashed potatoes, yoghurts, or sugary cereals. It is interesting that the baby most often perceives tasteless foods with a violent reaction or completely refuses to eat, pushing the plate away from him. During a meal, the child, as a rule, holds a spoon in a fist - experts consider it inappropriate to retrain him at this stage. The manifestation of children's independence is considered more important here, when the baby gets used to eating without assistance. While the baby is eating in the highchair, do not disturb him, trying to help unnecessarily.
