Begins to understand words for quantities

By 12 months, Your Child begins to understand words that describe quantities, such as more and many.

While Your Child may not be able to count in numbers and understand what that means just yet, the little one will begin to understand words that describe general quantities, such as more, big, and enough. Your Child can even show gestures and make sounds to request things from you.

How to support this development
Talk to your child whenever you handle things with relative sizes and quantities; use hand gestures to narrate the quantity — for example, this is a “big bottle”, that is a “tiny ant”, that’s a “huge plate of rice”, etc. Whenever you serve food, serve only a little first. If Your Child finishes that portion, ask the little one if they want some more. This teaches Your Child words that describe quantity, such as “more”, “less”, or “little”.

You can further help Your Child develop vocabularies by reading to them; playtime involving sing-along or counting can also help to develop this milestone even further.

Note: All children develop differently and at their own pace. For children born preterm, the referred timeframe for achieving the various developmental milestones might be incorrect.

Sources: The information and graphs about when children reach specific milestones are taken from various sources, including the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Denver Developmental Screening Test, and the State Institute of Early Childhood Research, Germany (IFP).