1. Joint Attention- By now your child should be starting to gesture or point toward people or objects he wants or to show you something or gain your attention. She should also be following your gesture or point to look toward things you show her. For example, a child hears an airplane and looks around and then looks up and points to the sky. She may not be able to say “airplane” yet, but she is indicating to you that she sees the plane and wants you to know that she saw it, thus gaining your attention for what she is interested in. Or she is looking for her ball and you say, “Your ball is behind you” and you point toward her back and she looks around, finds the ball and then smiles at you, showing that she understands your gesture/words.

Skills: Cognitive, receptive/expressive language, joint attention, socialization.

2. Peek a Boo/Hide and Seek on the Go- Now that your toddler is mobile and active you can continue to play peek a boo by encouraging him to hide behind furniture or doors while in the move. If he goes into another room, say “Where did Tommy go?” and hear him giggle and then go find him with a “Peek a boo, I see you” or a “There you are!” and see how long he will continue this game.

Skills: Gross Motor, Cognitive, Socialization.

3. One Step Commands- Toddlers are good at following simple directions, but not complex ones and not directions with more than one step. Practice having your child follow simple one-step commands such as “Get your cup”, “Find your shoes”, “Put it on the table”. If she can easily follow one step command then you can begin to work on two step related commands such as “Get your cup and put it on the table” or “Pick up your book and put it on the shelf”.

Skills: Receptive/Expressive language, listening, following directions.

4. Fill in the blank- By now your child is familiar with certain songs such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, sing this song and begin to leave a word off at the end and see if she makes an attempt to fill in the blank. For example, “Twinkle, twinkle, little____”.

Skills: Receptive, expressive language, cognitive, memory, attention.

5. Where is?- Encourage your child to find familiar objects, people and pets. Ask “Where is Daddy?” and see if he goes to find him in another room or ask “Where is the cat?” and see if he points to him or seeks him out.

Skills: Receptive/expressive language

6. Sing & Do- Sing familiar and new songs with your child, especially songs with gestures. If you don’t know the gestures, make them up! “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, “Wheel on the Bus”, “Old MacDonald” are a few. Encourage your child to sing along as best they can and to imitate the gestures.

Skills: Receptive/expressive language, imitation, motor planning.

7. Yours & Mine- Once your child knows and can point to a few body parts you can begin to work on having her identify your body parts and learn the words “yours” and “mine”. Say “Where is your nose?” and encourage them to point to their own nose and then say “Where is my nose?” and see if they point to your nose.

Skills: Receptive/expressive language, cognitive, identification, memory.

12-18 Months - 30 days of developmental activities

1. Little Helper- Toddlers love helping their parents, so why not enlist them to sort clothes, "fold", "wash", remove them from the dryer, unload the dishwasher, wipe up spills, dust or sweep the floor. It’s all good practice, makes them feel special and helps you out at the same time.

Skills: Gross/Fine Motor, Imitation, Language, Self-Help.

2. New Words-At this age young children are learning new words on a weekly, if not daily basis. Keep a word list on your phone or on your fridge so you can jot down any new words you hear your toddler repeat or try to say. This way everyone in your family can encourage the use of these words during play & meals.

Skills: Expressive Language

3.What’s That Sound?-Whether inside or outside, encourage your child to identify familiar and novel sounds by listening. For example, when the microwave bell rings ask “What was that sound?”, or when a fire truck passes by, or a motorcycle zooms by help your child identify the sounds by sampling, listening and recognizing what they heard.

Skills: Listening, receptive & expressive language, cognitive, refining auditory skills.

4.Choices- Toddlers love to be in control and giving them choices is one way to let them have it. During dressing ask “Do you want to wear the red shirt or the blue shirt today?” and during snacks and meals ask “Do you want a cookie or a cracker?”.

Skills: Receptive/expressive language, making choices, self-esteem.

5. Let’s Talk Shapes & Colors- During daily activities talk about the shapes and colors of objects. “There is a green pillow on the couch, can you find the other green pillow?” or “Your ball is round like a circle, your blocks are square,an you find me a round ball?”

Skills: Cognitive, shape & color recognition, listening, language.

6. Family Photo Fun- Pull out photos or photo albums and ask your child to identify people in the pictures including themselves.

Skills: Receptive/Expressive language, sense of self, identification.

7. Tell Me What to Do- At this age many parents feel like all they ever say to toddlers is “no, stop, don’t”. Instead of telling your toddler what not to do, tell them WHAT to do. For example, instead of saying “Don’t jump on the couch” say “Feet stay on the floor” and instead of saying “No throwing your cars” say “Cars drive on the carpet.”

Skills: Following rules, listening, promoting good behavior.

8. Label My Feelings- Use pictures in books or magazines or make faces to demonstrate and label feelings of happy, sad, mad, frustrated, scared. Help your child recognize when he is feeling this way.

Skills: Social-emotional development, language.

9. Obstacle course- Use furniture, pillows, blankets, etc to create an obstacle course for your toddler which requires him to walk, run, crawl under, crawl through, step over, step on, balance, throw, kick, jump and/or climb. This can be done inside or out.

Skills: Gross Motor, balance, coordination, following directions, language.

10. Treasure Hunt- Gather some of your child’s favorite toys and a few new/novel objects and hide a few things in each room. Tell your child she is going on a treasure hunt and encourage her to hunt for the treasures you have hidden while you provide her with clues “Your favorite doll is behind the dresser” etc.

Skills: Listening, following directions, language.

11. Get Crafty- Toddlers love crafts and at this age they are ready to use crayons, paints, markers, glue sticks, safety scissors, etc. Google toddler craft ideas and go to town!

Skills: Fine Motor, creativity, language.

18-24 Months - 30 days of developmental activities

1. Expand It- Toddlers are learning to use their vocabulary to build 2-3+ word phrases. When your child says “ball”, expand on that word by putting it in a simple sentence for him to hear and imitate, such as “A big, red ball”.

Skills: Receptive/expressive language.

2. What Do You Feel?- Use a small box or bag and place an object inside such as a block. Place the same block and a different object, such as a cotton ball on the table. Have the child reach into the box/bag without looking and feel the object, then encourage him to look at the two objects on the table and tell you which one was inside the box/bag.

Skills: Sensory-tactile, memory, language.

3. Sing the Missing Word- By age 2 most toddlers are quite familiar with certain songs such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” or “Old MacDonald”. To help your child learn to sing these songs on his own & to encourage language, sing a familiar song and leave out a word for your child to fill in. For example, “Twinkle, twinkle little____” and see if your child will spontaneously say “star” to fill in the missing word.

Skills: Language, memory, attention, rhythm/music.

4. Obstacle Course- Toddlers are developing balance & coordination skills & like to be active. Create an indoor obstacle course using a pillow, stuffed toys, blankets, furniture or an outdoor course using old tires, logs, trikes, rocks, etc. Arrange objects so your child needs to crawl under, walk around, jump over, walk on and balance, slide, scoot, step, walk between, swing, etc.

Skills: Gross motor coordination, balance, motor planning, body in space awareness.

5. Let’s Pretend- Toddlers are starting to use imaginative play and this can be encouraged by staging imaginary play scenes for your child. Use dolls, action figures, stuffed animals and props like empty containers or pretend food/dishes and create scenarios for your child where you play alongside them having an imaginary tea party, imaginary baseball game, imaginary breakfast, etc.

Skills: Creativity, imagination, language, socialization.

6. Give me ONE- Many parents focus on having their children count by rote memory to ten, but fail to teach the concept of a number. Use Cheerios or your child’s blocks and while teaching counting work on the concept of “one” by asking your child “Can I have one block?” or “Give me one Cheerio” and help him learn the concept of one out of many. When he understands one, you can move on to asking him to find two out of many.

Skills: Concept of number, counting, receptive language.

7.Bead Stringing- No need to buy beads if you don’t own a set. You can use dry rigatoni pasta or wagon wheel pasta and a shoestring or regular string to work on bead stringing. As a craft you can first color the pasta with paint or markers and later you can help your child sort colors or make patterns, by putting 2 green beads onto the string, then 2 red, etc.

Skills: Fine motor, cognitive, color matching/sorting/recognition, hand-eye coordination.

8.What’s The Use?- Find some everyday objects that are familiar to your child and see if he can identify the objects by their function. Place a ball, spoon, cup and shoe out in front of him and ask “Which one do you put on your foot?” or “Which one do you drink out of?” and see if he can tell you the object and its function.

Skills: Cognitive, receptive/expressive language.

9.I Spy- Play this game inside or outside with your child encouraging him to find things that are familiar by saying “I spy something that flies” and see if he can find a bird, or “I spy something that drives on the road” and see if he points to his toy car.

Skills: Cognitive, attention, memory, receptive/expressive language.

10. Nature Walk- Take a walk around your neighborhood or local park in different seasons and talk about what you see/find with your child. Talk about trees, flowers, cars, people, anything and everything you see! Collect leaves or rocks and bring them home to make craft projects.

Skills: Gross Motor, cognitive, language.

11. Pay Attention- If your child does not stick with one toy or activity for more than a minute or so, use an egg timer and set it to two minutes and teach your child that when the timer rings then he may switch to another activity/toy. Gradually move the timer up as your child’s attention span increases to a maximum of 5 minutes per toy for 2-3 year olds.

Skills: Attention Span, listening.

12. All About Me- Use a mirror and ask “Who is that in the mirror” or “What is his name?” or “How old are you?” Help your child learn his sense of self, by learning to say his name and age upon request.

Skills: Social skills, receptive/expressive language.

13. Can You Do It?- Encourage imitation of various facial gestures and/or body movements during play, such as raising both your arms above your head and then dropping one arm down and seeing if your child can imitate you. Or standing on one leg briefly and then jumping twice. Or sticking out your tongue and then blinking your eyes. See if your child can copy your movements and then copy his too to make it a fun turn-taking game.

Skills: Social, imitation, following directions, listening, turn taking.

14. Story Time- Now that your child is older he can sit and attend to a short story of 3 minutes or longer. Encourage him to find details in a picture book, for example instead of just asking him to find the ball, ask him “What is under the tree?” and see if he tells you “a ball”, or “Find the man who is wearing a hat on his head”. Challenge him with details.

Skills: Listening, visual attention, receptive/expressive language.

15. WH Question Game- As toddlers improve with language they begin to ask questions and you too can challenge your child with creative thinking and the ability to answer “wh” questions. For example, when Mom leaves for work, have Dad ask “Where did Mom go?” and see if your child can answer “Work” or “go to work”. When your child is playing ask her “What drives on that road you made?” and see if she answers “car”. When outside on walks ask “What flies?” and see if he can answer “A bird”. After dinner ask “Who cooked your dinner for you?” and see if your child can answer “Mommy”. Help them answer the questions if they don’t respond and if they respond with a single word, such as “mommy”, expand on the single word by putting it into a sentence for them such as “Yes, Mommy cooked your mac & cheese”.

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24-36 Months 30 days of developmental activities