1. Chapter 13
The Child from Twelve to Eighteen
Months of Age
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

2. Materials and Activities
• Materials for this age group must be
challenging:
– Watch toddlers at play for just five minutes and you will
see them walk (which looks like wandering), climb, carry
things around, drop things, and continually dump
whatever they can find
– Their play will change over the next few months as they
begin to use toys for imaginative play
• Materials may be homemade or commercially
made
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

3. Physical Development
• Toddlers walk, lurch, run, fall, bump into
things, and persist in moving around in their
world
• Falling is a valuable learning experience
• Toddlers learn with their whole bodies
• Toddlers can become absorbed in discovering
the world around them
• Short attention spans?
• Eating, hand washing demonstrate new motor
skills
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

4. Suggestions for Implementing Curriculum--
Physical Development
• Provide a variety of materials and activities so
that the toddler can often change activities and
play objects
• Provide materials that can be pushed and pulled
(including furniture), carried, dumped and
thrown
• Provide low climbing materials
• Adjust eating and nap times to toddler’s needs
• Allow toddler to self-feed
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

5. Cognitive and Language Development
• Cognitive Development:
– Piaget’s substages 5 and 6 explain the link
between cognitive and physical development
for toddlers between 12 and 18 months
• They explore objects in new ways and
therefore construct new understandings of
the world
• Toddlers experiment with cause and effect
• Exploration is done by trial and error
• Imitation of others becomes part of play
• Toddlers repeat play patterns and rituals
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

6. Suggestions for Implementing
Curriculum--Cognitive Development
• Provide ‘problems to be solved’
• Provide open ended materials
• Encourage the child to pretend
• Encourage the child to play with water and
materials
• Ask questions
• Verbally identify the cause of actions
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

7. Cognitive and Language Development
• Language Development:
– Language in toddlers of this age expands, with
less reliance on sounds and babbling and more
use of recognizable words
– By 18 months, toddlers will be asking what
things and sounds are as they categorize their
world
– Reading and books can provide enjoyable
experiences for toddlers as well as promote
language and cognitive development
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

8. Suggestions for Implementing Curriculum--
Language Development
• Repeat toddler’s words and expand into sentences
• Observe toddlers to help you understand their words
• Chant and sing nursery rhymes, chants, poems, and
songs throughout the day
• By 15 months, the child will be more involved while
reading books (one-on-one or small group)
• Writing can be encouraged by giving children paper
and pencils, crayons or markers
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

9. Emotional Development
• Toddlers seek both dependence and independence
– Erikson’s second stage: Autonomy
– They can make some choices and accomplish some tasks
by themselves
• Toddlers experience a wide variety of emotions and
sometimes seem to swing wildly between them
while gaining skills to regulate strong emotions
• Offer choices rather than commands
• Use positive guidance strategies to prevent injury
and incidents
• Temperaments affect responses to changes
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

10. Suggestions for Implementing Curriculum--
Emotional Development
• Determine, respond, and label emotions
• Model emotions (giggle, laugh, smile)
• Provide honest, workable choices
• Allow toddlers to complete activities by
themselves, if able
• Provide positive feedback for positive
behaviors
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

11. Social Development
• Toddlers are egocentric; they see the world from
their own point of view or perspective
• Gradually, as the concept of object permanence
develops, they differentiate self from other
objects and people
• Toddlers are socially capable of building strong
bonds with each other
• Toddlers engage in solitary plan and parallel play
with toys and with other children
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

12. Suggestions for Implementing Curriculum--
Social Development
• Help toddler to understand hurting others
using emotional talk
• Provide enough materials and equipment so
sharing can be encouraged but not required
• Do not force a toddler to interact, allow him
to observe
• Provide materials and space so toddlers can
play with own materials but near each other
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

13. Spotlight on Research
• Peer interactions of young toddlers
– Researchers are interested in how young children acquire
complex social skills over the course of their first few
years of life
– Interactions with caregivers were predominately positive
whereas interactions with peers were balanced across
positive and negative interactions
– More peer-initiated peer contacts occurred in classrooms
with higher child-caregiver ratios
– Toddlers in family group settings demonstrated a strong
sense of empathy and caring for infants and agemates
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.

14. Checkpoint Discussion Questions
• With the development of eye-hand coordination,
what can toddlers do now that they could not do as
well several months earlier?
• Describe something a 16-month-old would do that
shows she has mastered object permanence.
• Describe 2 situations in which a toddler interacts
with others. Describe 2 situations in which a toddler
plays alone.
• List 4 fears a toddler who is between 12 and 18
months of age might have. Explain how you would
respond to these fears.
©2014 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.