I know I have a typical toddler. At 23 months he has a huge vocabulary and is starting to string words together. He understands most things I say but he gets frustrated easily when he can’t show or tell me what he wants.
I’m really cross (with myself) that we stopped going to baby signing classes as it was fun and helped us communicate but Big Brother was bored in the classes and I, wrongly, assumed he would be talking soon. Roll on 6 months and his speech is coming along, but slowly. I wondered what else I could be doing to help him.
We were offered two activity packs from I CAN. According to I CAN, communication underpins everything that we do. And while we may take our ability to communicate for granted, all children need help to learn how to talk, and interact with others. Good speech, language and communication skills ensure a child can learn at school, make friends and express their thoughts and feelings.
The new activity packs aim to help parents to give their children the best start in life They are “Babbling Babies” for children aged 0-18 months, and “Toddler Talk” for children aged 18-36 months. Each pack contains 30 illustrated activity cards which give you different ideas, songs and games to play with your child.
We found the activity packs really useful. The activities for toddlers include games, songs, noisy play, painting and listening activities. They are quite short so we’ve been doing a couple a day. Some have been so much fun we’ve had to keep doing them but it’s difficult to mind when you know your child is learning whilst having fun! BB loves the illustrations on each card too (designed in association with Studio Conran and illustrator Owen Davey).
The baby activity cards are equally lovely with some great ideas. As babies develop so quickly the activities are divided into 3 age groups (0-6, 6-12 and 12-18 months). To be honest I found it really hard to do these activities because the activities just get hijacked by the toddler but we’re hoping to make some time to explore them properly soon!
Each pack is available in hardback (£12.99) or paperback (£7.99) from the I CAN online shop.
