Children learn best through play: Games and songs are fun ways a toddler can learn.
Teaching your child about body parts is a great way to start, as this can increase your child’s vocabulary and allow your little one to express personal feelings and needs.
Here are some educational games you can play with your toddler, based on the age of your child.
After 6 months
Help your child name the different parts on his or her body with this easy game.
Point to your baby's body parts and name them. Start by pointing to your own nose and say 'nose'. Then point to your baby's nose and repeat 'nose'. Do this for a few days consecutively, before moving on to other body parts – the eyes, mouth, ears, hair, hands, toes, fingers and more.
Now make a game out of finding the right body part. Call out: “Where is baby's mouth?” Then ask your baby to point to the mouth. When your child does it correctly, praise your baby. Repeat with other familiar body parts and soon your baby will be able to identify many parts of the body.
After 10 months
Show your baby picture books and point out body parts of the characters in the story. Ask questions like “where is the tail of the donkey?” or “show me the giraffe's neck”. This will help your little one to identify body parts on others as well.
After 24 months
Here is a cute song to make learning about body parts more fun.
With my hand on my heart, what have I here? (Point to the brain)
This is my Brain Boxer, my teacher said.
Brain Boxer! Nicky, Nicky, Nicky Noo.
That's what they taught me when I went to school.
With my hand on my heart, what have I here? (Point to the eye)
This is my Eye Peeper, my teacher said.
Eye Peeper, Brain Boxer! Nicky, Nicky, Nicky Noo.
That's what they taught me when I went to school.
Then add on more body parts to the song. For instance, you can refer to the nose as ‘Nose Wiper’; the tongue as ‘Tongue Wagger’; the chin as ‘Chin Chopper’; the stomach as ‘Bread Basket’; the knees as ‘Knee Knocker’; the ankle as ‘Bobby Soxer’.
You will have kids giggling about the different names for body parts. Stringing together these names in a song will also reinforce your child’s ability to remember things.
After 36 months
By this age, kids can be able to understand concepts like right and left. Here is a simple old song “Here we go Looby Loo. Here we go Looby Light” that helps reinforce the names of body parts, while teaching your child how to differentiate between the concepts of 'right' and 'left'.
Here we go looby loo
Here we go looby light
Here we go looby loo
All on a Saturday night
You put your right hand in
You take your right hand out
You give your hand a shake, shake, shake
And turn yourself about
Now replace the phrase 'right hand' with 'left hand' in the lyrics. When you’re done, repeat the song with the phrase 'right leg' instead of ‘right hand’ and do the same with 'left leg'. After that, end the song with the phrase 'whole self' instead of ‘right hand’.
