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Healthy Eating for Toddlers
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On Feb 2, 2017 | Social-Emotional Learning
Here’s a familiar dinner scene: there’s a child throwing a temper tantrum and peas are everywhere, and that’s just if you’ve managed to keep it together yourself. That adorable baby who would eat anything you put in front of them has become a toddler with an opinion. So what’s a parent to do? Plead? Beg? Bribe?
The good news is that this is very normal behavior for a toddler, and there are 2 main reasons your child is acting like this at mealtime. The first reason is that their tastes have likely changed, and they may very legitimately not like the same vegetables they used to get so excited over. And second, saying “no” is a very healthy way for a toddler to assert some control.
The bad news is, even if you’re the best parent on the planet, this mealtime battle is likely to continue for a long time. But here are some tips to help get your child to try some new foods and help keep them properly nourished...
Keep trying
Kids are notoriously fickle about their tastes. So, just keep putting vegetables on their plate. It’s amazing how one day they will reject green beans, but then the next day they will eat them by the fistful.
Try new foods
For the same reason that a toddler’s tastes are constantly changing, they have no idea what they will or won’t like (and frankly neither to you). Instill a habit of trying new foods. You could make a politeness taste rule where they have to have a taste of everything on their plate. They don’t have to eat it, but you might both be surprised by what they actually do end up eating. It can take up to trying something 10 times before they will like it.
Blend or hide the vegetables
Sometimes you just have to go the sneaky route. If your toddler will only eat meatballs, puree some carrots and a zucchini in them. Or, instead of regular pancakes, make sweet potato pancakes. Veggies can be hidden in just about anything.
Grow a garden
It’s amazing how a kid who won’t eat veggies at dinner might just pick a piece of fruit or a vegetable off a plant and eat it. Also, just getting a kid involved in the process of planting, picking, and making food can encourage them to eat.
Use playtime to reinforce healthy eating
Ask your child to serve you healthy meals at playtime. This can be encouraged with New Sprouts® Healthy Baskets, which are designed to build healthy eating habits.
Discovering and trying new foods is going to be an adventure for you both. It won’t always be easy, but instilling good eating habits now will bear great fruit down the road.
Toddler Skills - Colors & Numbers Printable!
Play your way to school-ready toddler skills with these fun, quick activities! This set's hands-on activities help kids learn and retain lessons in counting, color recognition, and early letter skills through fun, active play. Plus, the built-in carrying case lets you take the learning on the go! Learn more about Skill Builders! Toddler Skills.
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Toys for Talking- Peekaboo Learning Farm The Learning Resources Peekaboo Learning Farm is my daughter's new favorite toy, and I can't say that I'm surprised! It makes learning so much fun, and there are a multitude of ways to play with it. Her favorites include making me sing Old McDonald while she opens up each barn and matching the animal finger puppets to the pictures in one of her farm themed books (Click here for our favorite!). Like I said...so many opportunities.
What does the Peekaboo Learning Farm include?
- 5 colorful barns
- 5 adorable finger puppet farm animals (cow, horse, pig, chicken & mouse)
How do you use the Peekaboo Learning Farm?
The Peekaboo Learning Farm includes numbered, colorful barns that can be used to work on color identification, counting, matching, sorting, and more. Children are able to develop their fine motor skills by opening the colorful barns to find a farm animal finger puppet inside. The Peekaboo Learning Farm even encourages children to engage in imaginative play.Where can I find it?
You can find it at Learning Resources HERE or at Amazon HERE.
How can you use the Peekaboo Learning Farm to encourage speech and language development?
For receptive language development?
- Following directions: Make following directions fun with the Peekaboo Learning Farm. Have your child follow directions, such as, "give me the chicken," "open the blue barn," or even "take out the mouse and make him eat."
- Answering Yes/No questions: Before having the ability to answer Wh- questions, your child must be able to answer yes/no questions regarding things they want, objects, and actions. If your child is working on the concepts of yes and no, ask your child, "do you want the blue barn?" You could also make it a little silly to see if your child can answer yes/no questions regarding the function of the Peekaboo Learning Farm (Examples: should I eat the barn? should I kiss the cow? should I open the barn?). Want another fun idea? Pair this toy with a farm themed book. Look at the animals on the pages of the book, and ask your child if they match the animals in the barns (i.e., "Is this a pig?").
- Answering Wh- questions: Work on who, what, where & why questions while playing. Build comprehension by asking your child questions like "what is the mouse doing?," "who is in the red barn?," "where is the pig?," "why is the pig sleeping?" etc.
- Understanding spatial concepts (in/on/off/out): Work on these early developing spatial concepts by having your child take the roof off the barn, putting the roof on the barn, taking the animals out of the barn, or putting the animal back in the barn.
- Building memory skills: Play a memory game! Hide the animals in the different color barns, and see if your child can remember which animal is in which barn. Then have your child hide them for you to guess!
For expressive language development?
- Practice animal sounds: Learning animal sounds is fun, plus animal sounds are often comprised of early developing sounds, making them easier for children to say! Encourage your child to imitate you saying each animal sound. You can even try singing Old McDonald while opening up each barn. Be sure to pause at the end of the song, and wait for your child to fill in the blank (Example: here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a....)!
- Farm animal vocabulary: Talk about the different farm animals in each barn, and see if your child can label them.
- Requesting: Have your child request for the barns, animals or to open each barn. Depending on how much expressive language they have, they could use a simple word such as, "open" or "more," or a phrase or sentence like, "I want open" or "Can I have the purple barn?"
- Commenting: Encourage your child to comment throughout play. Model appropriate comments while playing with your child. Use language like, "I see a blue barn, what do you see?"
- Use of prepositional phrases: Place the animals in different locations and have your child use phrases to describe their locations. Put them in the barn, out of the barn, on the roof, or behind the barn.
- Vocabulary of action words: Pretend that the animals are doing different things and ask your child what each animal is doing. Depending on your child's vocabulary, you can focus on simple verbs like eat, sleep, and drink, or be more creative and use of verbs like swing, hop and slide.
For play development?
- Pretend play: These barns provide so many pretend play opportunities. Children can use their imaginations to pretend that the animals are eating, sleeping, playing, or even having a birthday party! The possibilities are endless!
For social language development?
- Turn taking: Develop turn taking abilities by asking your child if you can have a turn opening the barns.
- Asking questions: Model appropriate questioning during play by asking your child questions like, "What barn do you think the cow is in?" or "What is your favorite color barn?" Encourage them to ask you questions back!
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Toys for Talking - At Home with Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog! Learning Resource's Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog isn't just adorable, it's another great toy for facilitating both fine motor and speech and language development. With this toy, children are encouraged to build counting, sorting and color identification skills. Another plus...this simple toy is quick to pick up, as the quills can be stowed away within the hedgehog's body and it can be easily wiped clean.
What does Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog include?
- 2 piece hedgehog
- 12 peg shaped quills
How do you use Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog?
Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog has lost his quills! Children can take turns putting the hedgehog's peg shaped quills into his back and then pulling them right back out. In addition to all of the speech and language skills listed below, this toy can help children build:- Fine motor skills
- Counting skills: Have your child practice counting each quills or placing them in numerical order. There are numbers on each quill!
- Sorting skills: Practice sorting the quills by color or make it even more complex by having your child sort them into warm vs. cool color categories
Where can I find Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog?
You can find it on Amazon HERE.How can you use Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog to encourage speech and language development?
For receptive language development:
- Following directions: Build your child's ability to follow directions by telling them which quill to put in or take out (Examples: "put the red quill in!" or "take the purple quill out!").
- Understanding spatial concepts (in/on/off/out): Work on these early developing spatial concepts by having your child take the quills out of the hedgehog, put the quills on the hedgehogs back and in the hedgehog's body. You could have even more fun by pretending the hedgehog lost all of his quills and hide them around the house! Have your child look for the quills and talk about where they found them (Examples: under the couch, in the sink, behind the bookshelf).
- Understanding quantitative concepts (all/none, more/less, most/least, one/all): Count the quills with your child and take turns placing the quills in the hedgehog's back with your child. Talk about whether you or the hedgehog have most of the quills (or who has the least amount of quills.)
@my_sensoriumFor expressive language development:
- Labeling colors: This hedgehog's colorful quills are a perfect way to help your child learn their colors! Label each color while your child is playing with the different colored quills. Bring in other toys that are the same colors as the quills and sort them so your child can generalize the color names to other items! (*Side note-Children begin to recognize colors at around 18 months and continue to develop this skill through 2 years of age. By three years of age, your child should be able to label at least one color).
- Requesting: Hold the quills so that your child must request in order to get one. Whether they have a little bit of language or a lot of language, you can work on requesting in the following ways:
- If your child's not yet talking: Ask your child "who want's it?" and have your child gesture place their hand on their chest to gesture for "Me!" If they don't gesture independently, take their hand to help them perform the gesture and say "me." Children learn best through our models!
- If your child only has a little bit of language: Encourage your child to use one word to request. Have them use words like "me," "more" or even "quill" to ask you for each quill.
- If your child has some phrases: Support your child's use of phrases to request by working on "I want" phrases. First, model these phrases for your child by asking your child for the quills by saying, "I want quill" or "I want red." Then encourage your child to do the same!
- If your child is perfecting their language: Work on grammatically correct questions with your child. Have your child ask for each quill by saying, "can I have a quill?" or "may I have the red quill?"
For play development:
- Functional use of objects: Your child can practice demonstrating the functional use of objects, by putting the quills in and then taking them out.
- Pretend play: Inspire your child to be creative in their play. Pretend that the hedgehog has lost all of his quills in a forest. Imagine that the hedgehog has found his way to a farm and needs the farm animals to help him get them back. Don't be afraid to get silly!
For social language development:
- Turn taking: Take turns putting the quills in Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog with your child. Pause before it's your turn, and see if your child will tell you that it's your turn to put a quill in!
- Joint attention: Build joint attention while holding up the quills, putting the quills in or taking them out. See if your child will look at you, look at the quill, and then back at you. This joint attention, or shared interest, is an important early milestone of language development.
- Asking questions: Model appropriate questioning during play by asking your child questions like, "What color do you like?" or "Where do you think we should look for the quills?" Encourage them to ask you questions back!
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