A main source for the ages
Share of children pointing, waving and responding to their name, by age: our count from Wordbank v3.4
MyHappyBub (analysis of Wordbank open data) ยท 2026
- Children
- About 14,000 parents' answers for children aged 8 to 18 months
- Where
- The United States (children learning English)
- Ages
- 8 to 18 months
- How
- Our own count from parents' answers on the word lists in the open Wordbank collection
- What it found
- Parents said their baby pointed by these ages: half by 11 months, 3 in 4 by 12, and nearly all (95 in 100) by 16. Waving: half by 9 months, nearly all by 16. Responding to their name: more than 9 in 10 already at 8 months.
- Limits
- Based on parents' reports, which may count earlier or looser kinds of pointing than researchers do. Each month is a different group of children. The word lists start at 8 months.