0-3 Months
3-6 Months
6-9 Months
9-12 Months
12-24 Months
2 years onwards
Let's Pretend
2 years onwards
From the age of 2-5 your little one will be developing all the sensory, motor and social skills that will build self esteem and start them on the road to independence - setting the stage for their school days. Playing is as crucial now as it ever was -often being the catalyst for learning as well as confidence building.
Playtime Tips
- Encourage your child's imagination during pretend play - suggest new possibilities and situations and you'll be amazed how quickly your child will develop the ideas and also come up with some of their own
- Ask open-ended questions to encourage more response from your child. This will help build language and thinking skills, encouraging the transition from imitating familiar situations to your child imagining new and different ones.
- Encourage your child's good manners in all aspects of their day - including pretend play.
- As your child's memory and ability to follow instructions develop, give him/her more opportunities to try them out.
- Make the time to show a real interest in your child's actions and creations.
- When you know what your child really likes, foster his/her imagination and fascination with their chosen theme by providing unexpected and interesting details or further props for playtime. For instance, if your child likes playing chef, provide more pictures of food, describe the way you make dinner and include your little one in the grocery shop for ingredients. You can even involve your little one in the actual cooking, provided that ample safety precautions are taken.
- Remember it is just as important to praise your child's efforts as his or her successes.
How your child perceives the world
Cognitive Milestones: Reasoning, Judgement and Understanding By 2 years old your child's cognitive development is progressing from simple thinking and reasoning to a more complex understanding of time, letters, numbers and colours. You will probably notice that your little one is increasingly able to follow more detailed commands, has an increased attention span and his or her play is becoming more inventive and richly imaginative. Simple time concepts such as last night and tomorrow are now understandable. Your child now refers to him or herself as 'me' and will also be demanding more of your attention when discovering new skills - 'watch me' will be a common phrase! By 3 years, thought and behaviour is maturing and a realisation of others is setting in. A 4 year old has an increased comprehension of time and is able to distinguish between two objects based on simple criteria such as size and weight. By 5, your child should be beginning to tell the time competently, recognise letters and numbers, and will understand more complex concepts such as less and more, full and empty, early and late.
Recommended toys
Our extensive First Friends collection brings a big world down to size for little ones. Your child will love to play with the characters and situations - using his/her developing imagination to gain self confidence, develop decision making skills and take control of the action . Your child will be able to take what they experience and learn in real life, into their play - helping to develop cognitive skills and language ability.
