Feelings and Emotions

At about 18 months, children begin to communicate feelings and engage in emotional interactions. Research shows that the ability to express emotion is key to social development and well-being.

Early Number Sense

Children learn to count and compare sets of objects, recite the number string, and identify numerals as standing for specific quantities.

Listening and Reading Comprehension

As children develop comprehension of books read aloud or independently, they explore the uses and functions of written language. They begin to construct meaning, eventually applying critcal skills to make inferences and draw conclusions.

First Words

Infants string sounds together to imitate language. Later they use these sound strings to represent things in the world (baba for bottle). As toddlers they progressively build vocabulary and begin to learn the principles of word order (red ball, not ball red).

Rhyming

Rhyming songs and stories help children recognize the different sounds in words. Rhymes direct a child's attention to the similarities in words (hat sounds like cat), which helps them learn to read.

Cause and Effect

Children progress from a simple observation of action and reaction (spin the wheel to hear music) to a deeper understanding of cause and effect (germs make you sick). Cause and effect is important because it signals that a child can perceive hidden or abstract forces on objects.

Colors

Learning color names and matching them consistently to the right color develops by around the age of 2 to 3 years. When children eventually come to understand the concepts of color they can then use that information to categorize shapes, patterns and other visual information.

Recognizing Patterns

Children learn to identify, compare and extend patterns such as those made from shapes, colors, numbers, or sounds.

Time Concepts

Babies quickly get in to a routine of milk, play sleep before they learn that clocks measure time and that there is a pattern to the days of the week. Concepts of time (now, soon, yesterday, next week, this summer) and times of day (morning, night) allow children to describe the past, present and future.

Music

From birth, children love music and even prefer it to speech. Apart from the obvious joy of music there are a number of surprising benefits to listening to music: it helps develop language, problem solving skills, memory, and physical coordination.

2009
Baby Talk Magazine: Toys of the Year
Dr. Toy: Best Picks - New Products

Batteries:
Requires 3 AA batteries (Batteries not included).

Product Dimensions: 
11.00 x 6.70 x 10.50 inches

Product Weight: 
1.85 lbs