Imagining and creating: toddlers

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What to expect

Your toddler will probably enjoy:

• messy play
• singing aloud to songs and rhymes
• making ‘music’
• dancing
• pretend play
• imitating the behaviour of adults and older children.

Your child has lots of creative thoughts and ideas, and is keen to express them all through play. Her imagination and creativity grow best with new experiences and with lots of time and space to explore and do her own thing.

Your toddler is a keen little mimic who uses imitation to learn from others. By the age of two years your toddler will probably be babbling into the phone, cooking up a dinner of leaves and grass in the backyard and copying the actions of people she knows or sees around her.

Dressing up and pretend play also start around 15 months. Your child might start playing house or marching around the backyard as a firefighter. If you provide plenty of props, such as old clothes and hats, your toddler will probably enjoy playing at being an adult.

You might start to see a preference for a particular colour – choosing the blue crayon or the orange pants – and for a type of art, whether that preference is clay or playdough or painting.

Moving and singing along to favourite songs, getting stuck into water and sand, and squelching paint between fingers and toes will all be popular play activities. Music of all sorts can have your toddler imagining fantastic things like flying or floating in space.

Your toddler will also want to ‘help’ you around the house and at the shops, and will feel very proud of being a good helper.

The bath can be a great place for exploring water: pouring water from one container to another, seeing what happens when boats are filled with water, and experiencing how it feels when water splashes in your face.

Ideas to encourage imaginative and creative play

Your toddler’s imagination is blossoming and there are lots of ways you can encourage this important skill. Try:

• telling stories and reading books, particularly books with pictures of wonderful landscapes and creatures, and fun, silly or enthralling story-lines
• a walk in the park, in the sunshine, on the beach or anywhere with new sights and sounds
• reciting nursery rhymes
• playing dress-ups with old clothes, handbags and hats
• playing with musical instruments or listening to music
• allowing water play from 12 months; a bucket of water with bubbles and a few plastic cups are all your toddler needs (but remember it’s important that she is always supervised around water)
• crayons and paper to scribble on
• toys that allow for open-ended play, such as blocks and cardboard boxes.

All children develop at their own pace. If you are concerned about any aspect of your child's development, it is a good idea to visit your health professional.

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