• Differentiates cry and uses other sounds to get attention and indicate hunger.
• Begins to use gestures such as lip smacking or hand sucking purposefully to indicate hunger.
• Gives cues to indicate satiety e.g. stops sucking, moves head away from breast or bottle.
• Demonstrates enjoyment with feeding.
• Turn-taking with vocalisation emerges
  • Begins to engage in voluntary and differentiated communications.
• Distractibility increases. Feeding may be interrupted by attention to noise.

• Differentiates objects.  Understands sucking from breast or bottle is different from sucking on hands, dummy or toy.
• Recognises external cues and routines associated with feeding to predict that feeding is about to occur. e.g. mother preparing to feed,  sounds associated with feeding.
• Develops reciprocal enjoyment. Responds to facial expressions e.g. responsive smiling
• Becomes curious showing interest in examining objects.

• Communicates using vocalisations, facial expressions and body movements.
  • Enjoys babbling and engaging in two-way ‘conversations’.
  • Responds to terms such as ‘yum yum‘ when food is presented.
• Communications may be open to interpretation.
  • Facial expressions such as grimace provide responses to new feeding experiences.  Response could be interpreted as ‘I’ve never tried this before’ rather than ‘I don't like this’.

• Anticipates and develops expectations about feeding.
  • Associates feeding with routines such as having bib put on, being placed in the high chair, hearing the microwave beep.
• Understands:    
  • Opening mouth indicates readiness to feed.
  • Turning head or closing lips indicates desire to stop feeding.
• Uses carers’ emotional responses to help interpret what the experience means  e.g. ‘mum is smiling so this food must be safe’
• Searches for food and utensils after they fall from high chair.

• Uses a few words or vocalises to communicate and seek attention.
• Uses gestures to communicate needs e.g. pointing at cup to request a drink, shaking head to indicate ‘NO’.
• Requests and refusals become clearer and enjoyed.
• Indicates  clearly when  ‘finished’
• Refuses for the fun of the interaction or for asserting control.
•  Understands: 
• Words with visual cues
• Simple instructions and frequently used words e.g. dinner time, all gone, stop, no.

• Understanding of object permanence, consequences and causality, increases.
• Desire for independence and autonomy emerge.
• Starts to self feed.
• May refuse spoon or food.
• Understanding of control at mealtimes develops.   However not all actions are ‘Deliberate’ or ‘Meaningful’.
  • May throw food or utensils off the high chair to indicate satiety or out of curiosity.
• Understanding of sensory concepts to predict what food may taste like develops e.g. warm- cold, rough - smooth, soft-hard.
• Physical development provides skills to further explore and learn about food e.g. squashes food between fingers, uses hands to explore food in the mouth.

• Uses words to:
  • Make simple requests for food and drink.
  • State preferences.
  • Protest about food offered.
• Continues to use actions with or without words to communicate. 
• Understands simple instructions.
• Increasing ability to make choices from a limited range.
• May use words out of context or with incorrect meaning to achieve desired response.

• Independence increases but may be inconsistent.  Prefers to self feed but:
  • May give cues or make requests for assistance.
  • May not be tidy. Understands correct use of utensils but hands may be more efficient.
• Enjoys learning through play.
  • Simple pretend play, initially alone e.g.  Feeding teddy, pretend tea party, home corner play.
• Executive function i.e. memory & planning begins to develop.

Over time develops the ability to:

• Discriminate between foods. Can remember having had food before and if it was enjoyable.  Requests preferred foods.   ‘I only eat mashed potato with cheese on top. Like I have had before’
• Understand consequences of choices.
• Understand mealtime routines and expectations.
• Understand time sequences such as ‘lunch, then play’
• Generalise skills and apply them to different environments such as home, childcare, grandparents, restaurants but also learns to respond to different expectations e.g. will do at child care what they won’t do at home, including eating and drinking.