Language & Gestures
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My daughter can wave and point, but not speaking any words. Just “mama” when she is upset.
My ped was looking for mama and Dada and 1-2 other words, and then either pointing to or reaching for things she wants, or being able to play patty cake. I've never tried playing patty cake with my daughter tbh, but she's uhhh...a bit precocious. Last we counted she knew 18 words and 5 gestures. She wasn't walking tho until about a week before her 13th month! And she still doesn't "point" she just reaches at things or calls them by how she knows them, like if she's thirsty she just says "dink" for drink. We did a lot of repetition with her when naming things she saw or used daily, like EVERY time she saw a bird wed say "bird" and every time we handed her the sippy cup we said "drink". But she won't mimic signs. We tried from day 1 to use baby sign language and that never caught on even tho I still use it consistently lol babies are strange 😅
Okay so this makes me nervous cause my baby points. She doesn’t wave. She does understand what I tell her commands wise but doesn’t speak words. Lots of babbling and says mama but no words.
My baby just learned how to wave around 13 months, and is only saying dada and babbling a bunch. No pointing, no other gestures aside from waving.
Every baby is different. If you are worried about words/ gestures, I think a good way to help is to really emphasize simple ones and use them a ton. “Hi da-ddy”, *wave*. “You want mooore?”, *gesture* every time you give more food. “All done?” *gesture* every time. They reach for you? “Mama, up?” “Up, baby!” Drawing out words, breaking them into syllables, and constantly exposing them to gestures should help, but again, all babies are different. They also need a lot of space/ time to respond. You can say a word and give them 5 seconds to repeat it, but they may need 10-15, and then you may have already kept talking.
He knows how to say: mama, papa, mami (French nickname for grandma), papi (French nickname for grandpa), hola, flower, apple, banana, Lola (our pug), quatre (4 in French), agua, owl and baby. Gestures: waves, touches his/my hair when I say hair or cheveux, sniffs when I say stinky, claps, mimics chewing when I’m eating, doesn’t point but does the “come” in the direction of something he wants me to get for him, shows the number 4 in his hand, puts anything (blanket, toy, shirt, hat, pillow) over his face when he wants to play peekaboo, touches his head when he wants to do head shoulders knees and toes
I'm pretty sure my ped was only looking for 2 words and 1 gesture. When I told her he does more she said he was advanced. I think you're ok right now.