Toys for 18 month old

[purpleme12]

What toys does an 18 month old need? I mean I don't want her to not have some toys which she needs to develop and stuff so which toys should I have for her?

DS is 18 months old and loves his tractor and trailer, ride-on toys like his scramble bug and zebra, jigsaws and shape sorters. He has a ball pool and hula hoop which he loves. He also loves playing with his friends' kitchens! We spend more and more time outdoors too - throwing balls for the dog, exploring the garden or walking to the park. I think it's very easy to worry you're missing a trick with 'educational' toys but they learn from everything at the moment and it must be about experiences as much as certain toys, right?

Duplo (and NOT only 'girlie' Duplo). Duplo bricks introduce counting, colours, shapes etc. Simple jigsaw puzzles, and shape-fitting toys.

And if she is helped, very soon she might be able to use child-friendly scissors, to cut up junk mail, catalogue pictures, travel brochures etc. Then the next stage can be to glue pictures on thin card, and cut up to make her own jigsaw puzzles.

Threading-laces for large beads, or cotton reels.

www.lego.com/en-gb/duplo/about/baby-in-bloom

I'm a newbie parent, so have no authority at all, but IMO you shouldn't need anything if you interact a lot and expose kids to lots of news things in and out of the house. Kids developed fine for centuries without lots of the stuff we now feel we have to provide.

That said, my DS (19m) seems to get a lot from his jigsaws and shape-sorters just now and his imaginative play is really blossoming since we got a play kitchen.

And a big yes to Duplo - he enjoys naming / finding the different special bits (e.g. cars, animals), putting pieces together, telling us to build him things, and playing imaginatively with what we make. We play with it every day.

Finally, he's also absolutely mad about books, particularly ones he's had for ages and has read a trillion times. He prefers these to new books, often, and I think he picking up more and more of the vocabulary at each pass. Really richly illustrated things - like Each Peach Pear Plum and Peepo! - have been fantastic.

bankimoon and hjbeans what I was really thinking of was when she got to her 2 year old assessment thing with health visitor and I've heard they ask questions about if they can do things and I just didn't want to have to say no simply because she's never had that thing to enable her to do it (fair enough if she's tried and can't do it)

We've got shape sorters and jigsaws I do tell her colours and shapes etc although she's not got it yet of course. She's not really sitting down and enjoying playing with something at the minute though but assume that's a phase.

Thanks for threading idea I think i'll get that.

We've got mega blocks but only stuff you can build a tower with so animal duplo sounds good.

At my DS's 2 year check, I remember the HV asked him to do a wooden puzzle then got out crayons and asked him to draw something and asked him what colour this crayon was etc.

Just keep doing what you're doing, describing the stuff like 'you put the red triangle in the shape sorter' - this is all I did with my DS and he learnt that way. Same with 20mo DD - we just point things out in books and say things like 'where's the yellow sun' so she'll eventually learn it.

And duplo is fab!

Oh, I see - in that case I've no idea as I don't know what they ask about. Outside of stacking - I had a friend who's child couldn't stack the requisite number of things and the HV noted it. Haven't even thought of threading. Now I'll need to look up this list!

19m old DD2 is very much into matching and naming things at the minute.
I realised with DD1 that at this age they seem to work on one skill set for a while and then a while later develop another so their playing choices change (not helpful!).
Duplo was hugely popular here but it's all about plastic animals, word books and a battered old McDonald lotto game at the minute.

I don't really like this whole assessing thing I feel like they're going to judge her and I don't want my baby to be judged and assessed.

Just ignore anyone who tries to 'judge' her: you know she's doing fine, 'cos your her mum!

I suppose I could have included 'mark-making' - thick pencils on paper, the forerunner of drawing and writing; but don't expect anything other than 'controlled scribble' at first.

The more varied experiences and artefacts enjoyed at this age, the more synapse connections are made, so the brain can grow to be more effective.

And look at REAL animals and birds if you can, and look them up in reference books. Our DS watched water flowing along a tiny stream, and we waited for him for as long as he wanted.

Maybe 'time' is the most valuable thing. . .

frog in a box

We've got pets and honestly she loves them so much! She laughs at them and they're not even doing anything! It's so cute! She always points animals out on tele especially the ones we've got. She loves them all!