Oh BABY! | 107 11 Months: Show, Wave At 11 months, children are mo- tivated to share their interests with others. They learn to hold up and show objects to get others to look and notice what they’re interested in. Children are also motivated by the social experience of greeting in everyday routines where special people are coming and going. They learn to wiggle their hand to wave, with a mature wave developing later. 12 months: Children use an open-hand point with the fingers spread, and a tap with the fingers together, as an indicative gesture to draw the attention of others to things of interest. Children’s gestures become more clearly inten- tional and are often produced with emphasis and are now accompanied by grunts or early speech sounds. 13 Months: Clap, Blow a kiss At 13 months, children begin to learn through observation— by observing others and copying what they do and say. They learn to use gestures, such as to clap their hands and blow a kiss, by watching others and imitating them. The gestures and words chil- dren are exposed to shape their vocabulary and drive their interest in learning. 14 Months: Index finger point, Shhh gesture At 14 months, children point with the index finger to reference things at a distance, a sign that observational learning is solid and they are on the cusp of becoming a symbolic commu- nicator. Children also use the index finger for the “shhh” gesture. Their growing repertoire of gestures propels the unfolding of spoken words. 15 Months: Head nod, Thumbs up, Hand up At 15 months, you see symbolic gestures that are like words—a head nod or thumbs up to indicate “yes”, a wave in front of their face to indicate “stinky”, or a hand up to indicate “wait”. Gestures now reflect not only what the child is thinking about, but also that they know they are sharing ideas with others. 16 Months: Other symbolic gestures At 16 months, other symbolic gestures develop– such as “I dunno”, “high 5”, or even the universal peace sign. Gestures now bolster the learning of spoken words. The richest moments for early language learning are when the child and caregiver are sharing attention on the same thing and the caregiver talks about the child’s focus of attention, creating opportunities to learn that stem from social interac- tion. As a child’s gestures are developing between 9 and 16 months, you should also see other social communication milestones—the use of eye gaze and facial expressions to share attention and emotion, an increasing rate of communi- cating with sounds and gestures, a wider variety of actions in play, and an emerging ability to comprehend the mean- ing of spoken words. If these early social communication milestones are not solidly in place, it is likely that language will be delayed. It is important to keep in mind that delays in many social communication milestones may indicate risk for autism or other developmental delays. By detecting small gaps in early social communication skills, you can get extra help to support your child’s development before significant delays are evident. *16 by 16™ is a series developed by the FIRST WORDS® Project to help families and others learn important early so- cial communication milestones that launch language learning and literacy. Photo by Edith Saldana Photography