A main source for the ages
Pretending with a doll or toy animal, by age: our count from Wordbank v3.4
MyHappyBub (analysis of Wordbank open data) ยท 2026
- Children
- About 4,900 American word lists, plus about 9,000 in 10 other languages
- Where
- The United States, with a check in 10 other languages
- Ages
- 8 to 18 months
- How
- Our own count from parents' answers in the open Wordbank collection
- What it found
- In American English, parents of about half of babies said their baby pretended with a doll or toy animal (like feeding or rocking it) by 11 months, and 9 in 10 by 16 months. In other languages, half got there between about 10 and 15 months.
- Limits
- Parents tick yes or no, and may count some copying as pretending. Each month is a different group of children. The other languages' forms aren't identical.