Contents

Learning and development 1 to 2 years

Personal, Emotional and Social development

I will need help to understand; and learn how to manage my emotions. I want to feel positive about myself and develop my self-confidence. I will learn about my body and work out how to manage my personal needs, all by myself. I want help to make and learn about healthy choices. I want to have lots of friends and learn skills so I can play and work with others harmoniously.

Building Relationships: Help me learn how to form relationships with others

  • Share photos of special grown-ups and talk about them with me
  • Let me meet special grown-ups and tell me their names
  • Use gestures when greeting others or saying goodbye - waving and smiling
  • Play copying games with me - ask me to copy you doing something fun, like banging a spoon on a drum (this helps me learn how to take turns, like what happens when you have conversations with others)

Managing Self: Help me to be healthy, feel good and learn about myself:

  • Share photos or videos of me doing things and talk with me about what I’m doing
  • Let me wash my hands before eating to help set good habits. I can also help with washing my face using a flannel, after eating. Talk with me about why we need to wash our hands/ teeth so I learn the importance of getting rid of germs
  • Let me splash my hands and kick my feet in the bath
  • Give me cuddles and respond to things I do with eye contact and smiles
  • Let me try to put my boots on by myself
  • Let me look in a mirror. Point to me and tell me that it’s me in the mirror. Point to my nose, arms and legs and tell me what they are
  • Let me use my fingers to feed myself and let me try and hold a spoon so I can have a go at scooping food, maybe into my mouth!
  • Use my dolls or teddies to show me how to pretend to look after a baby or use my cars to show me how to pretend to go on a journey.
  • Talk to me about the things you are using and what you are doing with them

Self-Regulation: Learning and feeling emotions:

  • Let me get my comforter or special toy when I’m feeling sad or tired
  • Let me help you to share out the sandwiches and fruit onto plates, so that everyone has something to eat
  • Talk to me about how I might be feeling and support me by giving me a cuddle if I am upset

Physical Development

Help me to be happy, healthy and active. I need you to support me to develop my muscles and learn through my senses, so I am strong and able to balance and co-ordinate my body. I need to play indoors and outdoors so I can use all my muscles. Later on, my fine motor control will become more skilled so I can be more precise and develop my hand-eye co-ordination to help with my writing when I get to school.

Big and little skills to develop muscles and body control

  • Put my favourite toys on the floor so that I can crawl or bottom shuffle to them. Move them further away to give me a small challenge
  • Let me lift the flaps in a board book and share my excitement in what is behind the flap! Talk with me about what we can see
  • Give me dough so that I can squeeze or squash it with my hands or poke it with my fingers (this is helping me with pre-writing skills). Can you add a rolling pin and cutters as well, so I can explore these with the dough?
  • At feeding, changing or bath times share finger play songs with me like “Round and round the garden”
  • Let me splash my hands and kick my feet in the bath
  • Give me a doll’s buggy or large wheeled car to push
  • Can I have a small bag when we go shopping, or bucket when I’m digging, so I can fill it with interesting items and carry it around with me?

Communication and Language

Help me to develop my speaking (my home language or signing is important too) as this is important for all areas of learning and in later life. I will be talking lots and lots and will enjoy interesting conversations, I will love learning new words, learning rhymes and songs and I will really benefit from you reading stories to me regularly, so I hear and learn lots of new words.

Listening, attention and understanding

  • Share stories with me at bedtime or when we’re snuggled up on the sofa. Talk about the pictures or read the words
  • Sing songs to me when you’re getting me dressed or changing my nappy
  • Hold my hands to help me make the actions as you sing songs, “if you happy and you know it, wave your hands”
  • Make the sounds of animals and things when you’re sharing a book with me
  • Talk to me about the sounds we can hear when we go to the shops or the park
  • Let me help you with unpacking the shopping by telling me to find different things like “find the apples” or “find the crackers”
  • Play games with me where I have to follow instructions like “roll the ball” or “throw the ball”

Speaking

  • Tell me the names of things as I pick them up to explore
  • Show me and give me choices about what I can have to eat, like “yoghurt or banana”
  • Have a look at the communication checker to see if I’m on track

BBC's Tiny Happy People

Tiny Happy People can provide you with further ideas on how to help your child's brain development so they get the best start in life. 

Visit the following links for each stage:

For more information and ideas visit What to Expect When on the Foundation Years website

BBC TIny Happy People logo