photo-readingPlay Ideas: 12 – 16 Months

  • Toys they can push eg. truck
  • Pulling toys eg. Duck on stringFitting & Matching
  • Stacking objects
  • Simple shape sorter
  • Chunky peg men in boat
  • New noise making toys eg. Drum, zylophone, maracas
  • Posting box
  • Pegs and hammer toy
  • Toy telephone
  • Simple large doll and teddy with bedding and doll’s clothing
  • A simple train
  • Planes
  • Cooking utensils
  • Toy household objects like dustpan and brush or sweeper
  • Books with flaps, touch & feel, musical features.
  • Throwing toys
  • Wants to help with dressing
  • Loves speech games
  • Clapping
  • Nursery Rhymes: Rock a bye baby, Humpty Dumpty, I’m a little teapot
  • Opening and closing containers
  • Singing songs
  • Obstacle course to crawl over in lounge: cushions, rugs, under, boxes, over, etc
  • Action rhyming songs
  • Books
  • Thick Crayons and paper
  • Items in and out of containers
  • Pegs in a peg board
  • Stacking toys: rings, beakers
  • Cardboard boxes: to climb in and out of
  • Chasing games
  • Rolling the ball
  • Tea-set
  • Dolls pram/wagon to take toys around in
  • Vehicles
  • Massage
  • Talk to your baby
  • Exercise time as per gymbaroo, rocking, jiggling, swishing, rolling, twirling
  • Set up physical opportunities: go under chairs, play on swings, roll down grassy slopes, slide, jump, dance to music

 

Babytalk 

For your child’s language, memory, concentration and learning development I highly recommend the Babytalk program as written in the book. ‘Baby Talk’ Dr Sally Ward.

It only takes ½ per day and is invaluable, and really in a day when you are probably up and about for 16 hrs or so it is a small investment of time for great results.

It covers 0 – 5 yrs and you only have to read the relevant age group.

Babytalkbasic principles include:

  • allowing your baby / child to play in a way of their own choosing rather than being directed by you all the time.
  • The avoidance of correcting your baby, i.e. No, Not ruck, its truck.  Instead just repeat ‘truck’ for them to hear.
  •  Avoid testing your baby i.e. “where’s Mummy?” “what’s that?” – you don’t ask questions that you know the answer to, the same applies to testing your child in front of an audience to show how smart they are as this provides unnecessary pressure to perform and in fact will make them less likely to offer information, talk etc.  They then avoid it.

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