12 months old: Play ideas
Playing and learning ideas ideal for your 12 month old
Your 12 month old may well now be showing developments in these areas:
Physical
Be able to move one toy to reach another
Cognitive
Starting to understand you more when you talk to them
Social and emotional
Mimic others’ eg. When you’re talking on the phone
You may also notice that your 12 month old can guess what’s next like holding out arms when you get their jacket. Your little one may also be starting to show affection with hugs, kisses and smiles.
Ride-on toys
A ride-on toy is great for encouraging little ones to walk but you may need to help them get in it at first but they will learn to get on and off themselves in time. Make sure they have plenty of space to move around in it.
Encourage them to reach certain points around the room, and talk to them so they start to understand simple commands “stop”, “go”, “turn”.
Encourage physical development
As they get more confident moving around to investigate different things, this all imporves their larger motor skills.
Make actions happen is real fun for your little one now so games of activating lights or sounds will be a hit and you can encourage speech with "You pressed the button and made the lights go on!"
Cognitive skills are really developing now too so alert them something is about to happen. “Here we go! What do you think we’ll see?”
Musical toys
Keep sharing the correct words with your little one’s movement with the toy, and also to the toy's features. Say “back and forth” or “side to side” as your child moves the toy.
Encourage your baby by clapping or singing along these activities imprint on your baby's memory and boost self-confidence.
Animal play
Animal sounds are a big favourite with little ones - Moo! Baa! You can use the sounds the animals make in toys to help your baby practice animal sounds they hear to reinforce recognition skills.
Imitate the animal and your little one will love it! Ask them to join it: "What do you think a penguin looks like when it walks?”
Talk about where each animal lives, you can do this with a matching game, “Which is the home of the bear?” As they get older, exercise memory skills by pointing to different parts of the playset and asking, “Which animal lives here?”