10 activities to help boost your toddler’s development

Mar 6

Written By CocoRio

We spoke with our friends over at Babbu to find out more about boosting your toddler’s development, here’s what they shared with us!

Personal and Social

What am I like? Talk to your little one and ask them about the things that make them so

unique and special. This might be the colour of their hair, their eyes, how much they love

being outside, or how high they can jump. This is a fantastic and easy way to help your little one understand and develop their own sense of self.

Emotional

Funny faces. Let your little one know how you feel. It is good to share the emotions that you

are feeling and how your facial expressions display may show that feeling too. Play a game and let them copy or guess the emotion e.g. frown for a sad face, or yawn for a tired face.

Physical

Let’s move. Are you in the mood for dancing, or maybe your little one is? Getting your little

one to move around, whether they are jumping from sofa to sofa or attempting knee slides

across the kitchen floor, any type of movement is beneficial! The skills that they use to do

these types of movements are called ‘gross motor’, which are big movements which are

responsible for developing whole body strength.

Communication and Language

Make up a story. Ask your little one to gather some of thie favourite toys. Make up a story

with them, let them choose the characters, scenarios or the weather. This is a great way to

support the development of their imagination and creativity, whilst also understanding the

concept of a story having a beginning, middle and end.

Literacy

Play I-spy. This is a great activity with requires no materials at all. This activity supports your

little one’s communication and language development through developing listening skills

through hearing letter sounds, and enhancing their phonic skills. This also helps your little

one begin to relate letter sounds to objects. For example, “I-spy something beginning with h, h, h”, and pronouncing ‘h’ as ‘huh’ instead of ‘haitch’.

Maths

Build something. Depending on the resources around, encourage your little one to create

something by stacking or lining up some materials. Try to remember to ask them open

ended questions such as ‘Can you tell me what you’ve made?’, instead of ‘I love the castle

you have built’.

Understanding the World

Go for a walk. Not only is going for a walk with you little one good for yours and their mental

health and well-being, it also is great to help them with their physical development. You

could talk about the different sounds that you can hear in the environment. By doing this, you can help your little one begin to make connections between the sounds they hear and the associated name.

Expressive Arts and Design

Imagine this... If the weather is nice (not too sunny) and you have the space to do so, lay on your back with your little one on a comfortable surface on their back too. Talk about the

shapes, faces, animals, or numbers that you might see in the clouds. Encourage your little

one to look up and tell you or point to something that they are interested in.

Practical Life (Montessori-style)

Encourage independence. Let your little one try to put their socks on or hand you their

nappy. All of this is part of their development of self-care as they begin to learn that they can do thing by themselves. It doesn’t matter if their t-shirt is on back to front, they tried! Maybe ask them if is comfortable, or if it is a printed shirt, ask ‘Shall we try and see if we can put the dinosaur that is on your back, on your tummy instead?’