Make your own picture book featuring something your toddler likes or an experience you have shared (My Family, My Trip to the Zoo or My Favourite Foods, for instance).
Together, select pictures from your own collection of photographs, or cut pictures out of magazines. Paste them into a small blank book, or make a book by folding sheets of A4 paper in half and stapling near the fold. Add some simple text below each picture to explain what it's about.
Help your child associate the text with the pictures by pointing out details as you read. Or ask them to find things in the pictures and point them out to you.
Or you could pretend to be journalists and make your own newspaper.
Reading and discussing a book of pictures is a meaningful way to link words with actions or events, a key step in any child's language development. Transferring their words to paper enables your child to associate written words with spoken ones. As they become more organised in their thinking they can follow a simple plot and even create their own with your help.
Photos
Pictures from magazines
Scissors
Small blank book
Photo album
Folded sheets of A4
Stapler
Pencil
