Skip to Content

18 To 21 Months - Your Toddler Learns Self-Help Skills

Your baby is becoming more coordinated. He may already have learned to roll a large ball. Now he can learn to kick and throw the ball. He is now ready to perform some self-help skills. He may be very active and not want to sit still long.

SAFETY FIRST!

Bathing is fun for most toddlers. Although toddlers can sit and stand easily, they are not safe when left alone while bathing or engaged in water play. Supervise your child closely.

Start the habit of brushing teeth before bedtime. Use a soft toothbrush and make it fun.

HINT:

Encourage your child to build with blocks or other building materials such as sand, boxes, pots and pans, measuring cups or scraps of lumber that are sanded and safe.   This will help him develop his mind.

Things Your Child May Do At This Age

  • Jump with both feet off the floor at the same time
  • Walk up stairs, holding an adult's hand (or a railing)
  • Climb and stand on a chair
  • May help to dress himself
  • Roll a ball
  • Feed himself
  • Turn individual pages of a book
  • Begin to recognize, name and pick out common objects
  • Begin to make phrases or sentences of two or three words

Special Note:

Store dangerous items on upper shelves. Toddlers are experimenters. They like to take things apart and fit them together. Keep sharp, pointed items such as scissors and knives, tools and electrical appliances out of reach.

stethoscopeHEALTH HINTS:

Well Baby Check-ups: 18 months

Things You Can Do Everyday To Help Your Child Grow

Read to him everyday. A nighttime book or story can often help a child settle down and get ready for bed.

Saying short nursery rhymes (such as "Hickory Dickory Dock" or "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star") for your child can be fun as he will start to hear the similar sounds at the end of each line of the rhymes. Learning to play with words is a fun game that helps your child to develop the basic skills that are an important part of learning to read.

Act out word meanings. For example, hold him up and say, "Baby is up high in the air!" or put him on the floor and say, "Baby is down low on the floor!"

Take an egg carton and put a spool in each section. Let him open the carton and take the spools out and then put them back and close the carton. Teach him the words for what he is doing by saying "in", "out", "closed" and "open."

Teach him how to put words together to make phrases and sentences.  For example: if he says, "Want juice!", you repeat, "I want some juice." to show him the correct way to say a complete sentence.

Provide large sheets of paper and large crayons for scribbling and writing.

Sing songs like "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and point to pictures of the animals as you sing.

Show him how to work simple puzzles and let him do them on his own.

Play throw and catch with a ball.

Wash and dry your hands and then allow him to try. Remember to be patient.

Show him how to walk like a tightrope walker using a long board that is lying flat on the ground.

Toys You Can Make For Your Child

  • Take a shoebox and make two or three holes of various shapes and sizes in the lid. Then show him how to push or drop different objects through the holes. He'll find out that some things will fit through one hole and not through another.
  • Give him a plastic bottle with clothespins. Show him how to put the clothespins in the bottle and then how to shake them out again. (He may need help the first time he plays this game.)
  • Make a felt face. Putting the eyes, nose and mouth on a felt face can be a lot of fun. The parts of the face can be made out of felt and backed with velcro so your toddler can put them on and off.  Supervise your child during use.