Approaches to learning: 1-2 years

What to expect

One-year-olds are in the act of discovering the world. They enthusiastically use their senses to purposefully explore everything they can. They find pleasure in causing things to happen and in completing basic tasks. They also enjoy sharing interesting learning experiences with adults, and might use gestures and simple sounds or speech to ask adults questions. Because language skills are still developing, one-year-olds rely more heavily on nonverbal, physical strategies to reach simple goals.

Initiative, engagement and persistence

Your child indicates preferences nonverbally or with simple language. For example, she’ll point to an apple and push a banana away.

Your child can focus attention on interesting sights or sounds, often in shared experiences with adults. For example, he’ll sit on dad’s lap looking at a picture book. He collects information about the world using his senses.

Your child shows pleasure in completing simple tasks. For example, she might drop clothes pegs into a bucket and smile and clap when they’re all inside). And she’ll increasingly try to help with self-care activities – for example, feeding, undressing, grooming and so on. When she’s reading with adults, she might want to hold the book or try to turn the pages.

Curiosity and eagerness to learn

Your child actively participates in a variety of sensory experiences. For example, he tastes, touches, pats, shakes and so on.

She might seek information from adults by pointing to an interesting object, and then giving a questioning look, making a vocal sound, and/or saying a single word. In the second half of the year, children will be able to combine words to ask simple questions. For example, your child can say, ‘What that?’ or ‘Who coming?’

He shows physical and vocal pleasure when exploring objects and other things. And he finds pleasure in causing things to happen. For example, he picks up bells and rings them, then smiles broadly when each one sounds different.

Reasoning and problem-solving

Your child tries a variety of physical strategies to reach simple goals. For example, when a cart gets stuck while being pushed through a door, she turns the cart a different way and tries again.

He uses gestures and (towards the end of the year) simple language to get help when stuck. For example, he extends arms towards his grandfather and says ‘Up Up!’ when trying to get into large chair.

She discovers aspects of the physical world using early language skills and purposeful exploration with the senses. For example, she turns a plastic bucket over and over, raising and lowering the handle thoughtfully.

Invention and imagination

Your child pretends one object is really another with simple physical substitutions. For example, she picks up a wooden block and holds it to her ear like a phone. And she starts to use objects in new and unexpected ways. For example, she might put a saucepan on her head and laugh uproariously.

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