Your toddler is more busily exploring and learning about the world around them. Every moment that your child is awake he or she is learning boundless things about life, and themselves. Playing is an important factor in how a young child learns. Between the ages of 12 months and 3 years, your child will evolve from playing by themselves (solitary play), to playing alongside other children (parallel playing) and eventually playing interactively with others (co-operative play).
Playing with other children assists with your child’s social development, and builds vital life skills such as sharing, co-operating, and feeling empathy.
Playing with your toddler at this age is about discovery and experiences that will help stimulate their imagination, and in turn, aid intellectual development. Your toddler will most likely enjoy interactive playing with toys that incorporate various elements.
Games that integrate both actions and singing help your child to improve their memory and co-ordination. Drawing, painting and other practical endeavours develop fine motor skills and encourage creativity. Your child will also develop their cognitive and intellectual skills through play, as he or she learns to rationalise with general ideas and objects.
The toddler years of a person’s life are a highly concentrated period of learning and development. Children learn by growing, watching, and experiencing the world and people around them. You should talk both to, and with, your toddler often, and read aloud to them from very early on, as this helps your little one as they start to expand upon their language and conversational skills.
raisingchildren.net.au. (2020, April 3). Imagining, creating and play: toddlers. Retrieved from https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/play-learning/play-toddler-development/imagining-play-toddlers