{"id":27693,"date":"2025-01-30T18:00:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T18:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.may.app\/?p=27693"},"modified":"2025-10-28T14:38:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T14:38:04","slug":"baby-at-16-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.may.app\/en\/blog\/baby-1-year\/baby-at-16-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby at 16 months: everything you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your baby is 16 months old and continues to grow a little more every day. <\/span>This is a good time to review what\u2019s going on for them right now: motor development, cognitive development, diet, sleep, and health.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baby at 16 months: here\u2019s everything you need to know.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cognitive development<\/span><\/h2>\n

At 16 months, your baby\u2019s psychomotor development is in full swing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Memory<\/span><\/h3>\n

At 16 months, your baby\u2019s memory improves; they begin to sharpen their procedural memory<\/strong> (linked to automatisms\u2014this is what allows, for example, riding a bike without relearning each time). Their episodic memory<\/strong> also tends to develop, enabling them to retain moments they have personally experienced. Thanks to episodic memory, your child may be able to locate events and places, think ahead into the future, and also recognize people or locations. These two types of memory are very important because they help consolidate the new abilities<\/strong> your child develops every day. Finally, working memory<\/strong> allows your baby to hold information and use it in another context.<\/span><\/p>\n

At 16 months, your baby won\u2019t be able to remember all the moments you\u2019ve experienced together, even though their memory is actively developing. In fact, you have to wait between 3 and 5 years<\/strong> for episodic memory to be more fully developed. But they will still retain an emotional memory of these events!<\/span><\/p>\n

Language<\/span><\/h3>\n

From 16 months on, your child begins to be able to link two simple words in a row, or even string words together by imitating your speech. They will start to remember more and more words! But this is also the time when your child learns \u201cno\u201d and begins to assert themselves. <\/span><\/p>\n

Comprehension<\/span><\/h3>\n

There should be an improvement in their comprehension skills<\/strong>; that is, they begin to better grasp simple instructions like \u201cgo get your shoes\u201d or \u201cgive me the ball.\u201d They may not yet fully understand negation. At the same time, their sentences may be incomplete, made up of a single word (e.g., \u201cblankie,\u201d for \u201cI want my blankie\u201d). <\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, at this age, your baby\u2019s thinking keeps developing. They should start to become aware that they are a unique person with their own emotions!<\/span><\/p>\n

Motor development<\/span><\/h2>\n

At 16 months, your child continues their quest to explore the world<\/strong>, partly through discovering their body. Your child may start becoming aware of their body, their hands, their body schema<\/strong>. Soon, they might be able to identify body parts. Their movements should also become more precise. Overall, their fine motor skills<\/strong> tend to improve and become more refined. Their eyes and hands coordinate to reach what they want. This may be the beginning of them starting to eat on their own. To support the development of fine motor skills, you can choose different types of games: <\/span><\/p>\n