What should I be teaching my 18 month old?

Question

I want to be sure that I am giving my son the best experience that I can at this critically developmental stage. He was with a sitter for the first 14 months, who did not stimulate him much past tv. He only knows 3 words and I want to do the best that I can now that I am home taking care of him.

Answer 1

18 months isn't an age to be worried about "teaching" so much; it's an age to be giving interesting experiences and allowing him to grow into his own.

Take him outside, let him play on the playground regularly. Take him out to see other kids. Talk to other adults around him, so he can learn words from you. Keep the TV off - entirely if necessary. Read to him, interact with him, give him plenty of attention - the rest will come.

He'll pick up language best by listening to people talk to him and around him, most likely (although consult your pediatrician if you're concerned about the language side of things; 3 words at 18 months is certainly on the late side, and while I'd say it's not worrisome, I'm also not a pediatrician nor do I have experience with your child).

Answer 2

The best thing you can do is to enjoy being with him. That way you'll naturally involve him in your activities. Toddlers love to help and be involved with mommy or daddy. The learning at this stage will happen as you two just do life together. Talk to him, hand him things, ask him to get you things, tickle him, roll around, hide under a blanket, etc.

To bolster that, give him dedicated "slots" in the day where you read a book together or play with a couple of toys, just for his sake. Your day is bound to fill up with to-dos, so you need to strike a balance. But, if he's involved in your day, and helping, parenting is a lot more fun and he'll benefit from morning till evening as you two do it together.

Also, do not compare him with your perfect sister/colleague/neighbour whose child was walking at 8 months and plays the violin at 2. The most important things our three get is love and prayer and they are all flourishing. All the best!

Answer 3

Good for you, makin te choice to stay home with your son! I bet his language skills have already sky-rocketed! The thing I've found, being a stay-at-home mom, is that I know my son extremely well. What I'm teaching him in our time together happens naturally from day to day. So today he is interested in dancing, so we dance to some different songs. Tomorrow, maybe we play with drums, the day after we see the garbage truck go by so we watch a couple videos of garbage trucks, and read a garbage truck book, and take out the garbage together. I've also done a few "themes", especially when I know we will be going on an outing. So- I decided I wanted to get us a fish to take care of. That's a planned outing to the pet store. But first, we watched a couple aquarium videos. We bought a book with a story about a fish. We cut out fishes for the felt board. Made fish faces at meal time! Sang a couple fish songs. All this over the course of a week or so. Then: the big visit to the pet store. He went wild, absolutely lost his little 20-month old mind. And has been helping to take care of "Pete" ever since (that's how he says fish - peekh). We have so much fun!