Play time!
Alice Sharp
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Simple and adaptable activities to foster babies' and toddlers' cognitive development and emotional well-being are offered by Alice Sharp Faces
Faces
* Place photographs of faces, cut from magazines, on the floor and encourage a toddler to look at them. Include photographs with front and side views of faces. * Note the photographs that interest the toddler and describe the faces or name the people in the pictures. * Place a mirror beside the photographs and suggest that the toddler look in it. * Exclaim, 'Oh, I can see (Ben). I can see his hair, his eyes....'
Family faces
* Repeat the activity above, using photographs of the child's family. * Ask a toddler questions about the people in the photographs. * With an older child, place two photographs face down and ask if they remember who is in them. Let the child check if they are right. * Return to the mirror. Look at a photograph of the child and ask them to touch their nose on the mirror, then their actual nose, and so on. * Invite the child to make a funny face and exclaim, 'Oh, your photo can't do that!'
Friendly faces
* Stick photographs of a group of children on to CDs. Attach the CDs to a ribbon and hang them near a mirror, low enough so a child sitting on the floor can reach, turn and twirl them. * Help the child name the faces they focus on, and repeat as many times as the child wants. * Challenge the child to find a particular person. * When the child finds their photograph, exclaim, 'Oh, it's a little photo of Ben, but look in the mirror at your reflection that is bigger and here you are'. Give the child a cuddle.
Familiar faces
* Add CDs with photographs of familiar staff members to the collection.
Hang them up or place them on the floor and ask the child to find a face.
Lay the CDs face down and ask the toddler to turn them over and name the faces. * Ask a toddler to name the person, point to the real child or adult and say, 'Hello, (Beth).' * Lay out four CDs and ask the child to name each of the faces. * Cover each with a cloth and suggest the child finds the hidden faces and names each one. * Replace the covers and have the child find a particular face, then another, and so on.
Alice Sharp is the director of training company Experential Play in Glasgow
