Have you been asking yourself what are things I can be doing with my toddler? In this video I’m
going to share ten age appropriate activities you can do with your 13 to 24 month old that
will help with your child’s development. If this is our first time meeting, I’m Dr.
Belousov. I equip parents with knowledge so they can care for their children with confidence.
If you would like to know the developmental milestones that a toddler should be mastering
during this age range, I have a separate video on that. It's linked at the end of this video.
You will be astonished by your child’s physical growth and development during this age range.
Your toddler will continue to work on strengthening hand-eye coordination
and fine motor skills. An activity that's great to help with this is a simple puzzle with 2 to 4
knobbed pieces. Initially you will need to demonstrate and guide your child on how to do it.
Then you can position the puzzle piece close to where it should go,
and talk your toddler through the process of getting it to fit into the puzzle board.
In order for your toddler to hone his fine motor ability, perfect the pincer grasp, and
build strength in the hands, it's great to give him an opportunity to play with small objects,
but of course always under your supervision. Here is a great activity to do with toddlers who are 14
months or older. Take an empty paper egg carton and poke holes through the bottom of the wells.
While you are present and watching, allow your toddler to place q-tips into the carton through
the holes. This exercise will also help improve hand-eye coordination and will give your child a
sense of accomplishment as he masters the task. Another great activity to do with toddlers is
to have them drop pom-poms through cardboard cylinders. Tape several cardboard cylinders
from paper towels and toilet paper in formations on a flat surface,
at a good height for your child. Use pom-poms or other objects that will fit through the cylinders,
and while you are supervising, let your child drop them through. This will require a variety
of skills from your child, including lining the hand up with the opening of the tube, getting
the pom pom to fit into the tube, and knowing when and how to open the fingers to release.
Toddlers enjoy seeing the pom-poms reappear at the bottom after they are dropped through the tubes.
Move the tubes around into different formations, to keep your toddler engaged.
As your child masters the developmental milestone of walking, get a ball and give
your toddler an opportunity to learn to bend down and pick it up without toppling over
and to kick it around as well. Toddlers stay busy exploring
and learning from the world around them as they interact with their environments.
Taking your child to the park allows you to get some fresh air and your child to get his energy
out through physical activity. A lot of play sets at parks give toddlers the opportunity
to do activities that help strengthen motor skills like climbing up and down steps or other play-set
objects. At this age they also enjoy going down slides, swinging on swings, and having
the freedom to run around in open spaces. If you’re finding this information helpful,
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Since a toddler’s imagination is actively expanding, they love stacking, building
and creating things. Research confirms that not only is playing with blocks a fun activity for
toddlers, but it's really good for learning. Stacking blocks requires the child to line up
and balance one block onto another. It teaches the concept of cause and effect, visual-spatial
relationships and even helps develop emotional growth and resilience as the child has to keep
trying over and over again to position the block in such a way that it doesn’t fall off.
Just so your expectations are realistic, I want you to know that around 15 months,
a toddler should be able to stack 2 blocks on top of each other. Around 18 months,
toddlers start building towers of 4 blocks. Then after 24 months they will go on to stack 6 blocks.
I especially like the block set from Lovevery because it grows with the toddler.
There are over 20 different fun learning and developmental activities that the toddler can
do with just this one block set. The guide that comes along with it is full of activity
suggestions ranging in complexity to meet every stage of a toddler’s development. If
you want to check this block set out, I have it linked in the description below.
Having some musical instruments for your toddler to play with is a great way to encourage
exploration and creativity. It allows them to discover different sounds and beats that they
can make, rather than just pushing a button on an electronic toy and passively observing music play.
I have links in the description below with great musical instrument options for this age range.
Toddlers are in a developmental phase where they are like little sponges, they enjoy watching
what you do, imitating you and participating in the daily activities that you are doing.
Whether you’re making dinner, cleaning the table or sweeping the floors, he’ll want to
help you out with the tasks. Even though it most likely will take longer for you to complete the
task with him helping, try to turn it into a game and learning experience for your toddler.
There are little cleaning sets made just for toddlers. It makes it easier for the toddler
to have a broom that fits his size as he’s trying to help you with sweeping the floor.
In situations when you’re in a hurry to get something done
or it would be potentially dangerous for your child to participate, then look for another chore
that your child can be preoccupied with. But don’t discourage your child’s desire to be helpful.
During this age range a toddler’s speech development typically starts to really take off.
By 15 months we expect a toddler to say 3-5 words, by 18 months 6-20 words and by 24 months
the vocabulary expands rapidly to at least 50 words. A major way that you can encourage
speech development is reading books to your child every day. Choose simple books with a lot of large
colorful pictures without too many words. You can stop on a page and ask your child “what’s this?”
to encourage naming and pointing to familiar objects in the book.
If you are looking for toys and play ideas that are specifically designed by developmental experts
to be age appropriate, and stimulate a toddlers development, check out the Lovevery toddler play
kits through the link in the description below. I love the thought behind the design of these
play kits and all the developmental skills they help the toddler master through play.
Since toddlers are highly active, it is difficult for them to stay focused on one task for long
periods of time. It’s always appropriate to change activities when they get bored. Celebrate
their success when they stick with a task, but don’t push to remain with something if they lose
interest. Enjoy this season with your toddler and give her plenty of opportunities to explore and
learn from play and the daily activities that you are doing as you go throughout your day.
In the comments section below let me know which of these play activities you liked the best.
I’m looking forward to seeing you in my next video.