Toddlers depend on the grown-ups in their lives to help them with development in speech, but not by direct teaching. Toddler learning is best when adults provide an environment filled with safe objects, pictures and experiences. They need adults to describe actions and activities. This helps them recognize the meaning of words.
Toddlers learn the most when they interact with adults who understand that they may need to do something again and again and again.
What You Need for this Toddler Activity
A small or medium-size cardboard box (free of staples), junk mail and scissors or box cutter.
Let's Go!
Turn the box upside down and cut a large slot in the middle of the side facing up. (It may be best to do this part out of range of your toddler to avoid any accidents with sharp materials.) Show your toddler how to put junk mail through the slot. Let her try to put some pieces through. (Stiff pieces of "mail" work best; you may have to adjust the size of the slot to ensure success.)
Talk about the mail she handles. Is it flat, smooth, heavy or colorful?
Help her discover new words to describe her world! After several pieces have been "mailed," turn the box over and show her where the mail went. Toddlers love to do this over and over.
Let older toddlers open the mail and "read" it to you. Just say, "Read the mail," and see what they come up with. You might be surprised how much they can imagine or even understand by "reading" the pictures.
Judy Goth-Owens is a Parent Educator with the Ingham Intermediate School District and a Child Development instructor at Lansing Community College.