Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Toddler Brain Development

A young child's brain grows at a phenomenal rate in the early years of life opening a window of opportunity for learning that occurs only once in a lifetime.

These simple games will promote early brain development for toddlers.

FLY LITTLE BIRD
Children surrounded by words almost always become fluent by age 3, whatever their general intelligence. And people deprived of language as children rarely master it as adults, no matter how smart they are or how intensively they're trained.

Stand and face your toddler. Take his hands in yours.

While holding hands, walk around in a circle and sing the following rhyme with your own melody.

Fly little bird through the window - pretend to fly
Fly little bird through the door- pretend to fly
Fly little bird through the window
Fly and touch the chair.


On the words "fly and touch the chair”, pretend to fly and touch a chair. Ask your toddler to do the same thing.

Each time that you sing this little rhyme, fly and touch something different.

This game teaches vocabulary in a very pleasant way.

DRESS UP
The size of a toddler's vocabulary is strongly correlated with how much an adult talks to the child, reports Janellen Huttenlocher of the University of Chicago. At 20 months, children of chatty mothers averaged 131 more words than children of less talkative mothers; at 2 years, the gap had more than doubled to 295 words.

Here is another fun game that develops language skills.

Playing dress up is something toddlers love to do. As you discuss the various clothes with your child, you are developing language and giving your child new vocabulary.

Gather together all kinds of clothing...hats, scarves, shoes, gloves, whatever you think that your toddler would enjoy.

Put one of the hats on your head and say, “How do you do, Mr. (child’s name)?"

Put on a glove and say “Oh, this feels so smooth.”

Encourage you child to pick an article of clothing . Help him with words if he doesn’t have his own.

Soon, a conversation will ensue and the language will flow.

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