coarsegold
something that would elicit a verbal response?
Answer
Hi coarsegoldgrannie,
There was a brief period when our son was 2 that my wife began to get seriously concerned over his language capabilities. As a result, she spent months researching toys and videos that would help accelerate his speech and language skills.
To help our toddler verbalize, we found that the video series Signing Time, http://www.kids-toys-parents-love.com/Sign_Language_Videos.html, proved highly valuable in helping our boy get less frustrated about asking for things he wanted. Even our 14 month old girl began expressing emotions through sign language such as, Happy, Grumpy or Sick (when she truly felt those emotions).
A set of 3 DVDs called Meet the Sight Words, 1,2,3, was an amazing find and not only did it help our son to verbalize those words, but also to read them and identify them in books and television. Now, at three he spells all of the words independently in his Doodle pad, and our now 20 month old girl can read all the words. It took me a little while to get used to the videos, but the kids took to them right away. I wrote about our story here - http://www.kids-toys-parents-love.com/Sight_Words.html
Those were our two favorite DVD sets for helping the kids with their language skills. But since you asked for toys, here are a couple of recommendations:
The LeapFrog Scribble & Write http://www.kids-toys-parents-love.com/alphabet_learning.html is more of a writing toy that accurately helps kids write their ABCs by following a set of LED lights and audio instructions onto an erasable pad. It took our son a full day to figure it out, but once he did, he proudly ran to show us his skills. The TALKING part came when, after he figured out how to write all the letters, he would mimic the audio instructions and say, "first, draw a line from here to here. Then, draw another line from here to here. Finally, draw a straight line from here to here." So he was repeating the words used by the toy to help him write the letter A.
The Scribble & Write was too mature for our daughter, so at around 15 months she was using the LeapFrog Text & Learn http://www.kids-toys-parents-love.com/Leap_Frog_Text_and_Learn.html which has a QWERTY type pad and several teaching modes. The most useful is the mode that teaches letter pronunciation, in which upon pressing the letter, the audio guide claims, "P, the P says p..p...p" And after a while she was cutely coming up to us with wooden letter blocks and saying, "B, b...b...b..." So cute!!
I hope these toys and videos help. They were among our favorites and we truly saw their language skills develop before our eyes. Of course, parent participation always helps and reinforces instruction and knowledge through play. And the Doodle pad helps them to write down and express what they've learned.
Best Wishes,
Kids Toys Parents Love
Hi coarsegoldgrannie,
There was a brief period when our son was 2 that my wife began to get seriously concerned over his language capabilities. As a result, she spent months researching toys and videos that would help accelerate his speech and language skills.
To help our toddler verbalize, we found that the video series Signing Time, http://www.kids-toys-parents-love.com/Sign_Language_Videos.html, proved highly valuable in helping our boy get less frustrated about asking for things he wanted. Even our 14 month old girl began expressing emotions through sign language such as, Happy, Grumpy or Sick (when she truly felt those emotions).
A set of 3 DVDs called Meet the Sight Words, 1,2,3, was an amazing find and not only did it help our son to verbalize those words, but also to read them and identify them in books and television. Now, at three he spells all of the words independently in his Doodle pad, and our now 20 month old girl can read all the words. It took me a little while to get used to the videos, but the kids took to them right away. I wrote about our story here - http://www.kids-toys-parents-love.com/Sight_Words.html
Those were our two favorite DVD sets for helping the kids with their language skills. But since you asked for toys, here are a couple of recommendations:
The LeapFrog Scribble & Write http://www.kids-toys-parents-love.com/alphabet_learning.html is more of a writing toy that accurately helps kids write their ABCs by following a set of LED lights and audio instructions onto an erasable pad. It took our son a full day to figure it out, but once he did, he proudly ran to show us his skills. The TALKING part came when, after he figured out how to write all the letters, he would mimic the audio instructions and say, "first, draw a line from here to here. Then, draw another line from here to here. Finally, draw a straight line from here to here." So he was repeating the words used by the toy to help him write the letter A.
The Scribble & Write was too mature for our daughter, so at around 15 months she was using the LeapFrog Text & Learn http://www.kids-toys-parents-love.com/Leap_Frog_Text_and_Learn.html which has a QWERTY type pad and several teaching modes. The most useful is the mode that teaches letter pronunciation, in which upon pressing the letter, the audio guide claims, "P, the P says p..p...p" And after a while she was cutely coming up to us with wooden letter blocks and saying, "B, b...b...b..." So cute!!
I hope these toys and videos help. They were among our favorites and we truly saw their language skills develop before our eyes. Of course, parent participation always helps and reinforces instruction and knowledge through play. And the Doodle pad helps them to write down and express what they've learned.
Best Wishes,
Kids Toys Parents Love
What are some good learning toys to buy a toddler for Christmas?
lysistrata
My son is 18 months old and I am not sure what to get him other than what I already have. I wanted to get him something specifically aimed at learning, not just fun time.
Answer
It may sound weird, but at this age - EVERYTHING is a learning toy. Your child will be able to learn from anything. Kids are sponges at this age and absorb everything from how something feels, to the noise it makes, to the way it moves, etc.
My son always loved things with wheels. He would flip cars over just to play with the wheels - especially ones that you could pull back, and then they'd go forward on their own. You could see the excitement in his face when he figured out how to do this on his own. =)
I've read articles that said constantly giving your baby toys that are teaching, and learning things can actually be detrimental. They say it limits a child's imagination. If a toy is telling your child that something is a bear.. then it's a bear. Nothing more. It's not a magical bear with super powers.. or a bear that loves to eat vanilla pudding.. it's just a bear.
My son does have some learning toys, but I've found he doesn't like them that much. (He likes cause and effect toys like keyboards/pianos.. those pop a shape things, etc where you have to do something to make something happen)
Here's a list of the top 5 educational toddler toys :
http://toys.about.com/od/learningtoysbyage/tp/learningtots.htm
*monkey*
It may sound weird, but at this age - EVERYTHING is a learning toy. Your child will be able to learn from anything. Kids are sponges at this age and absorb everything from how something feels, to the noise it makes, to the way it moves, etc.
My son always loved things with wheels. He would flip cars over just to play with the wheels - especially ones that you could pull back, and then they'd go forward on their own. You could see the excitement in his face when he figured out how to do this on his own. =)
I've read articles that said constantly giving your baby toys that are teaching, and learning things can actually be detrimental. They say it limits a child's imagination. If a toy is telling your child that something is a bear.. then it's a bear. Nothing more. It's not a magical bear with super powers.. or a bear that loves to eat vanilla pudding.. it's just a bear.
My son does have some learning toys, but I've found he doesn't like them that much. (He likes cause and effect toys like keyboards/pianos.. those pop a shape things, etc where you have to do something to make something happen)
Here's a list of the top 5 educational toddler toys :
http://toys.about.com/od/learningtoysbyage/tp/learningtots.htm
*monkey*
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