Final answer:
At 12 months of age, an infant is generally expected to be able to make at least four unique consonant sounds and say their first meaningful word. Subsequent language development includes the capacity to combine words around the age of 18 months. This is supported by passive exposure to daily conversation and the infant's innate cognitive abilities.
Step-by-step explanation:
The direct answer in two lines to the student's question about what a 12-month old infant should be able to do in terms of language development is as follows: At 12 months of age, an infant will generally be able to make at least four unique consonant sounds and will likely utter their first meaningful word.
Language development in infants occurs in stages, starting with cooing and followed by babbling, where babies repeat syllables, like ma-ma, ba-ba, da-da, etc. By the time they are around 12 months old, we usually expect them to say their first meaningful word and to start combining words for meaning at about 18 months. They learn this rapidly through passive exposure to daily conversation and their cognitive abilities.
Babies are often more capable of understanding and differentiating between sounds even if they can't physically produce them yet. A baby's early vocabulary is usually limited to familiar objects or events and usually includes nouns. The utterance of a single word can have larger meaning, such as saying 'cookie' could imply identification of the object or a request for it. Hence, it's crucial to ensure rich and varied verbal communication with infants to cater to their language development.
Learn more about Language Development