Your child at this age may begin to isolate fingers to perform different tasks such as touching and pointing to pictures in books, lifting flaps or pushing buttons. Finger isolation helps your child develop fine motor and eye-hand coordination and increases strength in fingers for drawing and writing. So, let your child play and explore!
- texture books
- pop-up books
- lift the flap books
Step 1: Provide your toddler with a variety of books that have different textures to feel, flaps to lift or buttons to push.
Step 2: Let your toddler explore the textures through touching, lifting the flaps or pushing the buttons as you read. Don’t worry if the flaps get torn or the buttons break. This is a normal part of play at this age.
Step 3: You can also create games as you read together, where you point to and touch a picture in the book and give your toddler a chance to copy you. For example, you might say, “I see the cow” as you touch the cow. While you are touching the cow, say, “Show me the cow.” This gives your toddler a chance to watch and copy what you did. If your toddler points to something else, that’s ok. Acknowledge and celebrate what she points to. You might say, “You pointed to the dog! The dog has a white spot on his nose.”
