Toddler Development Activities

Toddlers are quickly developing their brains and bodies, so it's important to keep them engaged in things that will encourage them to learn and grow in a healthy way. Activities that require hand-eye coordination, movement and critical thinking help them to hone skills they will need to enter preschool and develop the proper physical abilities.

Dancing

• Toddlers are constantly developing muscles and skills in controlling them. Dancing allows them to utilize these muscles in different ways and explore how their bodies move. Toddlers dance to music without needing much encouragement, but try teaching your child how to do a spin or playing Simon Says to the music where you reach to the sky and back down to the ground. This type of activity will help strengthen muscles and improve balance.

Art Projects

• Art projects are excellent for toddler development because they involves thinking about spatial relations and using fine-motor skills to improve hand muscles for use of small utensils. Practice cutting strips of paper and gluing them into a chain with your toddler, or trace shapes to cut out and paste into a picture. For Halloween, cut out shapes to glue onto a pumpkin cut-out. For Easter, decorate paper eggs with markers and beads. These types of projects are good for both physical development and cognitive development because they requires thinking about spatial relations as well as using muscles.

Puzzles

• Puzzles are wonderful cognitive development exercises for kids because they're fun and require critical thinking. Provide your toddler with puzzles made of sturdy wood and large pieces with bright colors. Guide your child in figuring out which piece connects with others with phrases such as "This piece has blue on the edge. Can you find a piece with the same blue and see if it fits next to it?" Puzzles can provide a sense of achievement because toddlers can see the pictures they put together, and the task helps them improve cognitive skills by comparing pieces to figure out which ones work best.

Organized Sports

• Toddlers are constantly exploring the world and how it works, so organized sports can help guide them into developing proper social skills while helping them develop muscles and critical-thinking skills. They can play easy games like soccer with a group of other children that are the same age. This sort of game gets them moving and helps them develop coordination by learning to line their feet up with the ball. They also learn teamwork, which can lead to a sense of accomplishment.