Twenty months
This month your toddler’s vocabulary comes on in leaps and bounds. She can now say many words and will start to pair words up, ‘milk’ will become ‘want milk’ or ‘me hungry’. Keep up that running commentary you’ve been doing since your toddler was a tiny baby. If a friend comes round and you are chatting make sure your toddler is in the room with you, as toddlers learn as much from hearing people speak as they do people speaking to them. See helping your toddler to talk for more help
We are probably all guilty of switching on the TV for our toddler as we come in from the supermarket and need half an hour to unpack the shopping. With one child it can be easy to direct her to another activity instead of TV watching , but if you have an older child who watches the TV it can be difficult to stop your toddler from staring mindlessly at it too.
Try and not to make watching television an activity in itself. Topics and activities from programmes can be used as “springboards” for other activities – if your child has shown an interest in something he has watched, try and extend that activity or topic into something that you can do together. Many programmes offer good ideas for simple yet effective “make and do” projects, from painting to cooking – try to turn a blind eye to the “mess” factor, and try these out at home. Children are often thrilled if they can manage to make something they’ve seen made on television, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. Other than that make it clear to your toddler that she can only watch one television programme a day. For more ideas see Children and Television
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Last Modified: 11/07/2007
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