12 to 18 months

Use of single words emerges between 11 and 13 months of age along with continued babbling. Just as in babbling, infants predominantly produce central, front, and low vowels, in V, CV, and CVCV utterances.

Consonants produced include voiced stops /b, d, g/, nasals /m/. Velar and palatal consonants are not observed in infants’ speech very often. Words that are attempted most often contain /b/, /m/, /g/, /w/, and /h/ sounds.

Symbolic gestures appear with words around 12 months. Infants use gestures to produce actions that are typically associated with everyday objects such as drinking from a cup. Infants may use a word or a gesture to refer to a specific object. Words and gestures typically emerge around the same time.

Clip 1. The infant produces a wide variety of sounds. He imitates his father's sounds. He produces /l/ and /d/ sounds in the same intonation as his father.

Clip 2. The infant makes pizza with his mother. He produces several single words such as "mine", "no", "mom", "ball", and "eat". He also pretends to eat the pizza.

Clip 3. The infant is involved in manipulative play by stacking the blocks. He continues to produce single words in this clip such as "down" and "uh-oh". He also uses vocalizations to request actions from his mother.