An infant's ZPD might include comprehension of vocabulary like 'milk, juice, cracker, water, and night-night.' When the parent says these words directly to the infant, the infant can participate in the communication by responding with physical gestures.
For example, we have all seen a pre-verbal child throw a fit about wanting something that he can't express and his mother says "do you want milk?" - the fit continues; "do you want water?" - the fit continues; "do you want juice?" - the child quiets down and nods his head. The child has just participated in the communication process and shown obvious ability to understand his parent.
The opposite example also illustrates this well. The example of a pre-verbal child playing contently after dinner until his father says, "okay, its time to go night-night," and the child begins to cry. Again, he has proven that the word 'night-night' is within his ZPD even though he has yet to verbalize the words.
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