Between twelve and eighteen months,children begin to produce a variety of recogrniz able single-unit utterances.This period,traditionally
called the one-word stage,is characterized by speen in which single terms are uttered for everyday
objects such as (). Other forms such as () may occur in circumstances that suggest the child is producing a version of What's that,so the label "one-word"for this stage may be misleading and a term such as "single-unit"would be more accurate.
We sometimes use the term holophras-tic(meaning a single form
functioning as a phrase or sentence)
to describe an utterance that could be analyzed as a word, a phrase, or a sentence.
While many of these holophrastic utterances seem to be used to name objects, they may also be produced in circumstances that suggest the child is already extending their use. An empty bed may elicit the name of a sister who normally sleeps in the bed,even in the absence of the person named. During this stage,than,the child may be capable of referring to Karen and bed, but is not yet ready to put the forms together to produce a more complex phrase.Well,it is a lot to expect from someone who can only walk with a stagger and has to come down stairs backwards