Your baby continues to grow, change, and develop rapidly at sixteen months. He will make you happy with every new skill he learns. Knowing about a 16-month-old baby’s development will help you understand your child better and allow you to support him calmly and skilfully solve any crises.
What Can My 16-Month-Old Baby Do?
A baby’s development should be monitored in different ways – physically, cognitively, socially, and psychologically. In this way, you will be able to notice any issues in your little one’s development and have them diagnosed and remedied early on. So, let’s see what a 16-month-old baby can do, how much he grows, talks, eats, and drinks.
Measurements and Physical Development at Sixteen Months
Every baby is unique and special. Therefore, never compare your child’s development with that of your neighbour’s or friend’s baby. Instead, check whether his measures stay within the minimum and maximum range.
At sixteen months, you can expect that your baby’s weight will increase by 0.2 – 0.8 kg and length by 0.9 – 1.2 cm.
The table below shows 16-month-old babies’ average weight, length, and head circumference.
| Gender | Length (cm) | Weight | Head Circumference |
| Girl | 73.3 cm – 83.9 cm | 7.8 kg – 12.5 kg | 43.3 cm – 48.5 cm |
| Boy | 75.4 cm- 85.1 cm | 8.5 kg – 12.9 kg | 44.5 cm – 49.5 cm |
Don’t panic if the result is slightly below or above these values. The increase in mass and length is influenced by genetic factors, diet, sleep, and the amount of secreted growth hormones. If your neighbour is tall while your family is of average height, expecting your baby to grow as fast is pointless. However, if your little one’s weight and size differ greatly from the upper and lower values, it is beneficial to seek expert advice.
Psychomotor Development
Most babies can already walk well by sixteen months. In the meantime, he has also grown a little taller. Now it’s time to level up and start running, climbing, and jumping. So let’s see what an average 16-month-old baby can do.
- He can walk in a more balanced way than before. You can now hold his hand and take a little stroll together.
- When your little one has mastered walking, he will soon become an expert runner. Be careful now, as this is a time when minor accidents can occur, like knocking over your baby who is enthusiastically running from one room to another.
- He can go up and down the stairs with assistance.
- You are likely to catch your little one overjoyed with his sense of autonomy, climbing on your TV stand, sofa, or tabletop, which may lead to dangerous situations. Therefore, don’t let your baby out of sight, even for a second.
- He can scribble and draw lines and circles using a pencil with his whole hand. You can support your little one’s artistic talents by providing him with thick, washable crayons specially designed for children under three years old. Always supervise your child using crayons, as they may create a choking hazard.
- Your little one can now throw a ball. He can also catch a ball rolled to him from close by.
- Your little one loves opening drawers and cabinet doors and emptying their contents. Be careful; while you are in the living room with your guests, he may take out everything from your drawers and display their contents. And more importantly, it’s crucial to put dangerous, breakable, and sharp items away where he cannot reach them, or you can lock your cabinets with specially designed baby locks.
Language Development and Speech
Imitation forms the basis of language development in babies. The baby first registers the sounds he hears and then tries to express the right sounds by imitating them in coordination with the mouth movements he sees. In this way, he converts sound into syllables and syllables into words. Later, he will establish meaningful and interactive communication and produce his first sentences by appropriately ordering the words he knows. A healthy hearing ability and a rich environment with plenty of stimuli are key to healthy language development.
Let’s look at a 16-month-old baby’s language development and speaking skills.
- At sixteen months, most toddlers are in the one-word stage of language development. During this phase, they can say a lot with just one word. When they say “Out,” they may mean, “I want to go out”. When they say “drink,” they usually mean they are thirsty.
- Some may already move into the two-word phase. They can form sentences consisting of two words, such as “Mommy gone,” or “Daddy come.”
- Even though they can make sentences of only one or two words themselves, they can understand the long sentences of others. Therefore, instead of trying to speak with two words like them, you should talk to him like you would to an adult. This will increase his vocabulary and improve his speaking skills.
- He can answer questions by saying “yes” or “no.”
Social and Emotional Development
Genetic and environmental factors determine babies’ development. However, environmental factors play a bigger role than hereditary transmission in his social and emotional development. The behaviour of the people he interacts with, their reactions to events, and how they communicate affect your baby’s social and emotional development. Therefore, parents should pay attention to their behaviour and the way they talk to each other.
Children of happy couples who talk to each other in a normal tone (without shouting) and behave calmly are also generally happy and understanding. On the other hand, children of parents who shout regularly are often angry themselves and tend to scream and throw toys in a way that hurts the other person.
- Autonomy is very important to your toddler. Therefore, he may strongly resist wearing shoes, changing his diaper, or putting on his hat.
- A toddler can be very determined and strong-willed at this age. You can reinforce his sense of independence by trying to fulfil his wishes if it is safe to do so and by offering choices.
- A small child has a strong connection with his parents or primary caregivers, especially his mom. He may experience separation anxiety when he is away from his parents.
- He tries to understand his feelings, and you need to help him with this. Did he get sad and cry because his father left for work? Let him become aware of the feeling of sadness and missing someone instead of distracting him immediately to forget about the event. Hug and soothingly talk to him, name his emotions and tell him that you understand why he is upset.
- A toddler may not want to go to people he doesn’t know yet. Therefore, if you need to have him looked after by someone else, foresee some time to get used to the new situation together.
- 16-month-old babies prefer to play alone and do not want to socialise much. He may also not like to share his toys with others.
- A 16-month-old cannot hide and regulate his feelings and shows them openly. You can easily tell if he is angry or happy.
Cognitive Development
We can summarise this phase by calling him the “crazy explorer.” Toddlers blend their sense of independence with immense curiosity about cause-and-effect relationships and do not hesitate to try new things for this purpose. They do most behaviours consciously and are excited to observe the consequences of that behaviour.
- He continues to imitate what he saw in the previous months.
- He can repeat something new he has learned without getting tired.
- He consciously repeats those behaviours he discovered by chance.
- He can suddenly pour his cup of water into his plate full of food. This behaviour is not to make a mess or make you angry, but out of curiosity about what will happen when he does this.
- He can distinguish colours. He can show you the correct item when you ask about red, blue, or green among differently coloured objects.
- He consciously presses the buttons of his toys.
- He can imitate animal sounds.
- “Where is the dog? Which one is the cat?” When you ask such questions, he can point them out.
- He recognises body and face parts and can show them when asked.
- He will turn a book handed to him upside down.
- He can use an item for its intended purpose. For example, he puts the phone to his ear, combs his hair with the comb, and extends the remote towards the television.
- He can learn the rules of simple games.
Eating Habits and Nutrition
Nutrition is very important for the development of a 16-month-old baby. If you adopt a healthy diet, you can give your baby whatever you eat. However, remember that eating habits and tastes are formed at a young age. So, you shouldn’t deprive your baby of tasting broccoli just because you don’t like it. Even if it may not become his favourite food, he may still eat it if you introduce it now. Serve your little one lots of seasonal vegetables and fruits. If he is still nursing, ensure it doesn’t replace any main meals.
If you allow him, a 16-month-old baby can eat his food on his own. Allow him to choose and eat as he pleases, sit him in a highchair and put his food in front of him. This will improve his confidence and sense of success. Also, let him wash his hands and even brush his teeth with a soft-bristled or silicone baby brush. It will not be effective teeth cleaning, but you can be sure that your little one’s self-confidence will skyrocket.
16-Month-Old Baby Sleep
Sleep is very important for the growth and development of babies because the growth hormone produced in the pituitary gland is secreted most during sleep. Getting enough sleep is necessary for your baby’s growth, weight gain, and psychosocial and emotional development.
Even though your child is now old enough to run and climb, he still needs to sleep more than half the day. At sixteen months, babies sleep eleven to fourteen hours, eight to eleven hours at night and around three hours of napping during the day. Splitting the nap into two (2 x 1.5 hours) may be beneficial. Of course, there are individual differences in the amount of sleep a baby needs. Some children nap for four hours, while others only nap for half an hour.
Play at Sixteen Months
We must value the importance of play for a baby’s overall development. For the games you play to be educational and instructive, they must be appropriate for your baby’s age. You can safely play the following games with your 16-month-old.
- Rolling and Catching a Ball
Sit on the floor, not too far from each other. Slowly roll the ball to your baby. Instruct him to catch the rolling ball and roll it back to you. Enjoy the fun! This game develops your baby’s hand-eye coordination and ability to follow objects.
- Paper tearing
One of the most enjoyable games is tearing and crumpling paper. The sound of paper being torn and crushed and the shape it takes when you squeeze it in your palm will entertain your little one and strengthen his hand and finger muscles simultaneously.
- Hide-and-seek
Hide in a safe area where your little one can easily find you. Then call your baby. Let him follow your voice and give directions on how to find you. Applaud and praise him when he finds you. This game allows your baby to develop his sound localisation skills, improves his hearing, and is just a lot of fun.
- Kitchen orchestra
Art is very valuable for a 16-month-old baby’s development. You can make music together with your child using kitchen utensils. Take a few wooden spoons, some plastic containers and aluminium pots of different sizes and turn them upside down. Then beat them like a drum, together with your baby. You can even improvise and sing along with the drumming.
Shopping advice – What to buy?
Babies love to bang, drum, and make all kinds of different sounds. Buying baby musical instruments like a drum, xylophone, maracas etc. will make your child very happy. A soft baby ball lets your baby practise his ball skills and hand-eye coordination. Shape sorters and large building blocks are ideal gifts at this age. Suction cups and plates, sippy cups and baby cutlery give your little one the independence he craves for when eating. Please look at our website, read other parents’ reviews and buy the items of your choice at affordable prices at ebebek.
It’s Your Turn Now – Write a Comment
How are you raising your 16-month-old baby? What challenges did you experience this month? How did you overcome them? We welcome your comments to support and inspire other caregivers.
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