Toddler Talk: 18-24 Months
Your child is now a year and a half, can you believe it? 18 to 24-months is such a fun age and you will continue to see tremendous growth in overall language development.
During this time, your child will continue to understand more than he can express. He will demonstrate understanding of language by following simple directions (get your shoes, find mommy) and by looking towards or picking up a familiar object after it has been named. During this time, play skills will begin to expand and you will notice your child beginning to use two objects in play by giving a baby doll a bottle or stirring a pot in the play kitchen.
Using gestures (pointing/reaching/waving), sounds, and simple words will be your child’s modalities of communication at this time. The number of words your child should have at this time is pretty expansive, and can range anywhere from 8 to 50. Your child will be learning and adding words to their vocabulary consistently, and as he advances towards 2 years old, you will begin to see a transition from single words to the use of two word combinations.
The most beneficial ways to interact and play with your baby are things that parents tend to do instinctively. It should also be noted that at this time parents begin to feel the need to begin teaching pre-academic skills (colors/letters/numbers). While skills are important and can be mentioned, what’s more important for school is to provide your child with a strong foundation of language skills. Focus on using vocabulary that is contextual and based on what your child is doing and what is happening throughout your child’s day. The most important words to teach are ones that allow your child to communicate for a variety of purposes throughout the day, by using common nouns, action words, and descriptors. If you are searching for a little more guidance in these interactions, read on.
Speech and Language Play:
Talk: Narrate your day. Talk to your child as you go places and do things. “I see a car. The car goes vroom. That car is red.”
Model: Use simple words and phrases that your child can understand and begin to imitate. Before handing your child his milk, hold the cup back, say milk, pause in hope that he will imitate, then hand him the milk regardless if he said it.
Use Sounds: Sounds are easier to produce than words. Use sounds during play, roar for the lion, vrooooom for the car, smack lips while pretending to eat.
Ask questions and wait for a response. (Try asking social questions and avoid quizzing, what’s this…). The pattern of “you talk and I respond, then I talk and you respond,” is the foundation for back and fourth conversation. Slow down, listen, and really observe what your child is doing and you might be surprised by what he has to say!
Repetition: We all learn from repetition and consistent exposure. Use the same simple words repeatedly throughout the day and you might be surprised with how quickly baby will start repeating. Ex: every time you carry baby up the stairs say “up” with each step.
Sing: Simple songs are calming, attention grabbing, and interactive. Singing with your child provides a great interactive activity and supports future speech and language skills, such as auditory discrimination, phonological awareness, vocabulary development, and auditory memory. Some simple songs that baby might love are Hush Little Baby, Pat-a-Cake, The Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Twinkle Twinkle.
Read: Read, read, read! Board books with bright pictures and simple text are the most engaging for this age. Reading everyday is an important experience that exposes him to language, rhythm, sentence structure, and new vocabulary.
Tell Your Child What to Do. As adults we often will tell a child “don’t run” or “don’t flush the toilet.” At this age, your child doesn’t understand negation and all he hears is the last word in your phrase. So he will most likely continue running or flushing the toilet. So, instead of telling him what not to do, try telling him what to do, “walk” or “walk away.” You might be surprised how quickly your child responds to your direction.
Sensory Play:
Toddlers learn best through their senses which is why sensory play is so important for a developing child. Any activity that allows your child to safely explore using a combination of their senses (touch/smell/sight/hearing) in creative and spontaneous ways is considered sensory play. By providing your child with the opportunity to play with a variety of open-ended, everyday materials, you are providing baby with sensory experiences that plays an important role in early brain development.
Some sensory play ideas for toddler age 18 to 24 Months:
Paint: Set up an easy paint activity and allow your little one to experiment with color, follow directions, support fine motor development and so much more in one simple activity.
Window Scenes: The love of contact paper is real in our house. It’s easy to place the contact paper on the window and then place different materials to watch the light shine through. We love tissue paper!
Cooking: Not only is exposing your child to cooking a great way to expand his palate, but the process provides him with a a great way to build his language skills. Read all about it here.
Box Play: Climb in/out, create a bed, rocket ship, or train, or color the whole box. The options are endless.
Sensory Bins: Fill a container with taste safe items and let your child explore. Some favorite fillers include oats, wet/dry noodles, lentils.
Toys:
Toddlers are beginning to play more purposefully by putting objects in, taking objects out, stacking, dumping, and building. Your child is beginning to problem solve while using toys and he will begin to use two toys together. I highly recommend avoiding toys that require batteries and stocking up on old fashioned toys that provide baby with more opportunities for open ended play.
Duplos play encourages problem solving, supports fine motor skills, and creative thinking through constructing their own ideas.
Block play is so important. When toddlers are first beginning to play with blocks they are learning how to hold them and carry them around. He may experiment with how heavy the blocks are and the types of sound the blocks make when dropped. Your child’s language skills are supported by him learning words associated with block play, “fill, on, pick up, tall, and short.”
Baby Dolls provide opportunities for pretend play and are perfect for both boys and girls alike. Playing with baby dolls encourages care-taking and nurturing skills, develops language skills and cognitive ability, and develops fine motor and self-help skills.
Toy Kitchens provide children with an outlet for acting out what they have been watching mom and dad do in the kitchen. From creating meals, to washing dishes, your child will use his cognitive skills, language abilities, and visual discrimination to create and serve meals. We do love the IKEA play kitchen and all of the accessories.
Stacking Cups are a great way to support baby’s development in all areas. A simple rainbow stacker allows your child to play around with size by putting cups in and on. He can nest the cups or stack the cups to make a tower.
Puzzles are a great way to start supporting those problems solving skills. The Melissa & Doug First Shapes Jumbo Knob Puzzle is the perfect beginner puzzle for your toddler.
Riding Toys will help your child develop motor skills, improve eye-hand coordination, and increase your child’s sense of balance. Your child will practice sitting while holding on to the handlebars and then pushing with his feet, all at the same time. You can even incorporate “ready, set, go…” into some stop and go play on the riding toy. We love these simple Little Tikes Push and Ride Racers.
Little People allow toddlers to learn how objects are used together. When playing with these miniature people and objects your child can begin to make connections between objects – like placing the little people on the firetruck. Your child will also have a language enriched experience with this toys by pairing sound effects to the actions and describing what is happening with the little people. Our favorites are the Little People House and Little People Fire Truck.
Shape Sorters have been around for years and provide opportunities for so much learning during play. Your child will work on problem solving, learning cause and effect among a myriad of other things without even realizing it! The Match & Roll Shape Sorter is always a hit!
Remember, every child develops at his own pace, so there is a large window for when your child will reach his developmental milestones for this reason. There’s nothing to worry about if your child is hitting his important milestones within a period that you and your pediatrician are happy with. If you as the parent are having concerns, do not hesitate to bring it up to your doctor