Encouraging Your Toddler’s Beautiful Mind
/Toddler time is like an enlightenment period for our little ones. When a child is between 12 & 36 months old, the world is their oyster and everything is new and exciting. This is a time of great cognitive, emotional and social development that happens only during this period. It’s highly important that parents indulge their little ones by encouraging learning and development during this time. This goes beyond daycare and preschool and extends to the time they spend at home with family. Luckily, encouraging this kind of learning and behavior is easy. It requires zero preparation, some everyday household items and a little bit of time. Here are some things you can try!
Take advantage of your toddler’s senses! We learn to understand the world around us by seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing and touching. Whether you’re at home or running errands, encourage your toddler to touch certain things and call out what color it is. For example, if you’re sitting at home on the couch, point to the textile and call out its color. If you’re eating dinner, ask what color their vegetable is. Something as simple as this increases the potential of recognition.
Counting can be harder for some children than others, so whenever you have the opportunity to teach about counting and measurement…take it! Count the number of blocks you have as you put them away together. Count how many trees you see on your afternoon walk. Once you start this routine of counting, you’ll notice your toddler will join in without even knowing it.
So we might not all have the singing voice of an angel, but your toddler will more than likely appreciate the effort. Children’s songs are a great way to encourage learning. Toddlers learn through song by reciting the words with melodic tunes. Whether you’re singing the alphabet song or The Itsy Bitsy Spider, there is value in singing because it encourages new vocabulary. If you’re really not into hearing your own singing voice, there are thousands of albums geared toward toddlers online and through iTunes that will definitely serve the same purpose.
Promote your toddler’s memory by keeping familiar things close by. Keeping pictures of friends and family on a bulletin board - or in different areas throughout the house - can help create associations and improve memory. Writing names on sticky notes and putting them at the bottom of each image can help with recall at family get-togethers and events.
Do you have your own way of encouraging learning in your household? Let us know in the comments below!