The ability to understand what is heard （receptive language） is still growing faster than speech （expressive language）. At 16 months, your toddler is using mostly single words. The bulk of these words are nouns, but she can use adjectives like "hot," verbs like "want" and "go" or even questions, such as "whadda?"

    Words represent thoughts and serve as actual sentences. "Car" may mean, "We're going for a ride". The first two-word sentences are pieced together with the words said together but not really connected, as "Boy. Run."

    You will observe that our toddler talks at least as much to herself as to other people. She may appear astonished when someone responds to this self-talk.

    Receptive language is learned mainly in the home--in a context of feelings and actions which coincide with objects, people, and their gestures.

    When Daddy says, "Come here," he holds out his arms to receive your child. When you say "Give it to me," you reach out to accept the object. When you hold the cup to your toddler's lips, you say, "Drink your milk."

    In other words, your toddler's receptive language is the product of simple associations which have been going on since she was about six months old.

    Imitation plays a big role in the life of your toddler. She uses it for learning new words. You say, "See the monkey," and your toddler echoes the word "monkey." Or your toddler points to an object and you or your husband supply its name.

    There is a snowballing effect in learning language--the more a child is able to speak, the more she learns to speak. Once your toddler discovers this power of speech, she has a new style of behaving and dealing with her world. She demonstrates this mastery by manipulating the adults in her life. And they generally love it!

    孩子聽力（接受性語言能力）的發展要比話語能力（表達性語言能力）快一些。16個月的寶寶大多只能說一個詞的語言，并以名詞為主，但也能表達某些形容詞如hot（熱）及某些動詞如want（要）和go（去）,甚至還能提問，如whadda?（什么？--兒語）

    詞匯既可代表思想，也可當作真正的句子來使用。（例如，）單詞car可能包含"開車去兜風"之意。一開始可用只含兩個詞的句子，即把兩個詞放在一起說，但并不真正聯結起來，如說"boy,run"（孩子，跑）.

    你只要觀察一下就可發現：娃娃自言自語并不比跟別人說話少。如果有人對寶寶的自言自語作出回答，孩子會顯出很吃驚的樣子。

    接受性語言主要是在家里學的，這是一個充滿感情色彩的語言環境，也包含很多與物品、人物及其身體語言相一致的動作。

    當爸爸說"Come here"（過來一下）時，他一定會張開雙臂，準備把寶寶報起來。你說"Give it to me"（給我）時，也會伸出手去接你要的東西。如果你把杯子遞到孩子嘴邊，你還會說"Drink your milk"（喝奶吧）.

    換句話說，接受性語言就是一種簡單的關聯過程（即語言與動作、表情等的關聯）的產物。孩子從大約6個月大開始，就一直在不斷地接觸接受性語言的訓練了。

    模仿在寶寶的生活中起著重要作用，孩子可通過模仿而掌握新詞。如果你說"See the monkey"（看看這只猴子）,那么孩子會跟著說monkey.或者當孩子指著某物時，你或孩子的爸爸要及時說出該物品的名稱。

    學習語言的過程有滾雪球效用：孩子說的越多就越能說。而一旦寶寶發現語言的這種作用，孩子在自己的世界里所表現出來的行為以及應對周圍事物的方式也會不斷發生變化。在日常生活中，孩子還會通過大人去掌握周圍事物，這往往是很多孩子樂意做的事情。