Are you wondering what to expect from your toddler? Your toddler has lots of creative thoughts and ideas, and loves to express them through play. Imagination and creativity grow best with new experiences and with lots of time and space to explore.
What to Expect from your Toddler
Your toddler is busy exploring the world through messy play, singing aloud to songs and rhymes, imitating grown ups and older children, dancing and pretend play.
They are keen mimics who use imitation to learn from others. By the age of two, your toddler will probably be babbling into the phone, playing on the computer, cooking up a dinner of leaves and grass in the backyard, and copying the actions of other people.
At around 15 months, your child might start playing house or running around the backyard as superman. If you provide plenty of props, such as old clothes and hats, your toddler will probably enjoy playing at being a grown-up. He or she will also want to ‘help’ you around the house and at the shops, and will feel very proud of being a good helper.
Moving and singing along to favourite songs, playing in mud or sand, and squelching paint between fingers and toes will all be favoured activities.
The bath can be a great place for playing with water. Pouring water from one container to another, seeing what happens when boats are filled with water, and bathing favourite toys or dolls (or the cat).
Your child might also prefer one type of art, whether it’s clay or playdough or painting, and have a preference for a particular colour – choosing the blue crayon or the orange pants.
Music of all sorts can have your toddler imagining fantastic things like driving a train or a bus or flying through space.
Encouraging imaginative and creative play
There are lots of ways you can encourage your toddler’s blossoming imagination. Try:
- reading or reciting nursery rhymes
- telling stories and reading books, particularly books with pictures of wonderful landscapes and creatures, and fun, silly or enthralling story-lines, or making up your own story lines
- playing outdoors or walking in the park, on the beach or anywhere with new sights and sounds
- playing dress-ups with old clothes, handbags and hats
- playing with musical instruments or listening to music
- encouraging water play. Something as simple as a bucket of water with bubbles and a few plastic cups, kicking through the waves at the beach, or splashing through rain puddles are time-tested ways of safely introducing water play.
- scribbling with crayons and paper
- giving your child non-electronic toys such as puppets, blocks and cardboard boxes will stimulate their imagination.
 All children develop at their own pace. If you’re concerned about any aspect of your child’s play development, it’s a good idea to visit your health professional.
Global Montessori has been offering primary child care, after school care, and the Montessori method of schooling in Langley since 1988. In our new Montessori in Marpole facility, we accept infants and toddlers living in and around the area and beyond. For more information, visit https://globalmontessoricenter.ca