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May 2017 Moms
Jkp7749
member
Activities for Toddlers
Jkp7749
member
The other day there was a post about someone whose 18 month old can sing abc's and count to ten. I am under no illusions that my 18 month old should be doing that, but it got me wondering what kind of "educational" activities you guys do with your 18-24 month old children. I stay home with her and we read a lot, I talk to her all day long, we color, play, do puzzles, etc. She was in the red for speech for a bit and we were worried, but sure enough it has picked up here recently and she barely squeaked into the green at her 18 month check up, so I'm not asking b/c I think she's behind, I just want to know what fun things we can do to help her continue to learn and I'm sure some of you mommies have some neat/fun ideas!
I do have one developmental question though- at 18 months, were your children's words hard to understand? she learned cracker but it's basically caca, and our dog's name is willow but she says wiwo, that type of thing
I do have one developmental question though- at 18 months, were your children's words hard to understand? she learned cracker but it's basically caca, and our dog's name is willow but she says wiwo, that type of thing
Re: Activities for Toddlers
My son is 17 months, so a very similar age to your daughter. He is no where near singing the abc's or counting to 10. I mean if I worked with him maybe he would do some of it, but those are 2 things I haven't even started yet. Right now I've been working with him a lot on colors. Honestly, probably not the best thing but he watches youtube video songs and he picks up some of the information. Some of the words he says are pretty clear some are not, if someone is a speech pathologist here they probably can comment on the development of word sounds.
We have an awesome library in our area that I take him to play at. They have a ton of awesome things to play with that stimulate the mind and there is also little groups like "toddler time" and family project days. It's such a great resource to have in the community.
I've been trying to limit the amount of time he plays with toys that just light up and sing. I prefer he plays with more "pretend things" like his play kitchen, train table, blocks etc...
I need to figure out how to get her to connect the dots when I'm trying to teach her a word... she just gets mad and never tries to copy. Physically she can do all sorts of stuff and she understands all kinds of directions, but the first time she's ever immediately copied was for cracker the other day and she was SO proud of herself! Usually when I'm trying to help her learn something, she just quietly observes. Hopefully she's still getting something though
I was opposed to the light up toys too, until today we were visiting her one year old cousin who has a fake laptop with all the animals and their sounds. I have never her DD copy so much EVER. For each animal she attempted to say the animal name when she pressed the button (do- dog) du (duck) etc. and then when it made the animal noise, she even tried that!!!! I was so excited, I may just go buy her that toy! She tried to ribbit and it was so funny
The more you talk to her, the more words she is going to pick up on. At the grocery store, I enlicit my toddler to help me. "Let's find the apples. Do you see the apples? We need five apples. Can you help me put five apples in the bag?" Even though at 18 months DD2 couldn't count to five, it was all about exposing her to counting. Plus I snuck the word apple in 4 times in less than a minute! Use the correct pronunciation ALL THE TIME. Yes, it's completely normal for her words to not sound correct at her age, so when she says "caca" you respond with, "here's your cracker". I hate baby talk and refuse to do it ever. Not even when my baby is a baby! It's not about flash cards and drill with kids at this age either, it's about exposure in real life situations and during play! She hears the correct pronunciation, she just isn't ready to say it yet and that's completely fine. I encourage you at her 2 year check-up to express any concerns you may still have with her speech. There is absolutely no shame in getting an eval from a speech therapist if your concerned!
I'm all for pretend play at this age too! Melissa & Doug toys are my favorite for this!
Also, I have no shame in saying that my kids play on the iPad, but I research apps that are age appropriate and have some sort of learning aspect behind it. At 18 months, DD1 and DD2 loved Peekaboo Farm. It's a simple touch to find the animal, hear the animal sound, and then the app repeats the name of the animal. I also don't have a problem with my kids watching a TV show, but my 2 and 5 year old aren't watching Pokémon or Barbie... they are watching Daniel Tiger, Sid the Science Kid, Doc McStuffins... there has to be some learning aspect behind it.
Sweet Baby H 12.21.11
Sassy Baby P 03.26.14
Little Brother Due 05.22.17
"Usually when I'm trying to help her learn something, she just quietly observes. Hopefully she's still getting something though"
I guarantee that she's picking up more than you think! Kids are complete sponges! I'll say something and two weeks later, I'll hear it again. It takes time and repetition for their little noggins to fully process and compute all the stimuli around them, but it's getting in there, for sure. Beyond the colors, shapes, vocab, and math that are specifically "taught," our mannerisms, quirks, and slang are being expressed by our 3 y.o. in amazing, unforeseen ways.
Parents are often amazed to learn at what age children are actually expected to master a letter sound. For example, did you know that the -r isnt typically mastered until age 7?! So think of the word "cracker", of course she says "caca" because it's not developmentally appropriate for her to say the -r yet! Are there kids who can do it much earlier than 7? Sure, but that's why there is such a large average. As a teacher, we wouldn't refer a child to speech therapy for a missing -r until second grade!
Sweet Baby H 12.21.11
Sassy Baby P 03.26.14
Little Brother Due 05.22.17
Sweet Baby H 12.21.11
Sassy Baby P 03.26.14
Little Brother Due 05.22.17
Also I mentioned in the UO that we actually let DD watch TV and things like that. When she was younger we would have mother goose club playing through the roku in the background and a lot of those are songs and dancing that teach colors and numbers.
Even though at one point DD could say the entire alphabet, all the sudden she misses letters now or skips back and says the same ones over again. It will come and go, we won't be worried until she is older. We will correct her and sometimes she will say them correctly, and sometimes she will laugh and say it wrong again like its a game.
Out of the house activities:
- toddler storytime at the library
- open play gym
- little gym (we havent gone for awhile though but she's a fan)
- shopping and talking about what we see/buy
- other random activities throughout a couple mom meetup groups
At home:
- puzzles (she love these 12pc puzzles we have and 24pc floor puzzles with a little help)
- pretend play (kitchen, dress up etc)
- tablet - educational games only and a pbs show during breakfast at the table. She likes doing various types of puzzles and problem solving on it, or color by the number/letter etc.
- TV is pretty much always on during late afternoons to nick jr. She loves wallykazam and unizoomi. She also went through a superwhy phase and mothergoose too.
- coloring
- build towers out if blocks or whatever
We read books before naps and bedtimes. The 100 first word baby books were really great with her. We started out with showing her what is what then overtime, we'd ask her where is what and she would show us, and now we can ask her what is that and she will say it. Her speech is still a work in progress so we just repeat back what she just identify like "thats right it is a panda!". She has always been interested in numbers, letters, shapes and colors so I don't know if she learned those already because shes just interested in them or because of us constantly identifying and describing things. It will be interesting to see how this LO is.
Oh when she was younger and not talking yet, some basic signs helped a lot. She could ask for food or milk with minimal frustration unless there was a specific food she wanted. Other signs we used most are more, mama, daddy, sleep, cutie (the fruit lol. I signed it once and it just stuck. She was hooked)
That being said, my DD doesn't talk much and it she does it's pretty much only around DH and I or on rare occasion she will say something to our other family, usually out of excitement.
I try to do activities with DD, but I'm no Pintrest mom, but here is what we do:
- Color with crayons
- Put together her alphabet puzzel, she likes to take the pieces out and copy where I put the letters back
- We read books, I also let her look through them on her own
- She likes to put things in ziplok bags and take them out
And of course I talk to her, as one sided as it is, as much as I can and let her pretend talk on my phone (she likes to imitate people).
His speech is definitely not perfect or clear! When he wants more food, he says "mamamama", cheese sounds like "chez", our cat Nola is "o-ya". I haven't heard anything from our ped about needing to be concerned. He indicated that as long as B is trying to make the words, it's fine.
I think what everyone has said about repetition is important, too. He's recently picked up "shirt", and I think it's because every morning when we get him dressed we say the clothing name over and over as we put it on him.
B also really loves a little board book we have called "First 100 words". It's pictures of animals, and everyday things like food, clothes, etc. Before we do bath time each night, he usually sits with me to flip through a book. He points to the pictures and I just say the words over and over.
Married:09/14/13
Baby 2 - Due: 5/4/17