Teaching Toddlers to Identify People By Name
In this Article
As part of the growth and development of communication, a toddler has to learn how to identify people, places and things. You can help yours by means of fun activities to make toddlers identify people by names. You can also use conversation to drive the point home.
Toddlers who turn 2 years old enter a very exciting phase of their lives. They suddenly become more communicative and alert trying to grasp, understand and acquire all that is happening around them. As a parent, you have to help your child in the art of learning communication the right way through activities and even your communication with him. When he starts babbling words and shows the willingness to learn more words, you have to give him the right stimulus to identify others by their names and utter them properly as far as possible.
Tips for How to Teach Toddlers to Identify People by Name
1. When and How to Do this?
Toddlers are extremely busy human beings trying to understand and grasp as many things as they can! With a whole lot of activities happening around them, chances are your 2-year-old will be uttering some words too. It’ll be even better for him when those words get a response from you. This is the right time for you to start teaching him to identify others by name.
2. Activities to Engage Him in
Toddlers begin to show their oral development when they start using their mouths to form letters. They may even be babbling some words although they may still mix up the sounds. Here are some tips for teaching toddlers the name of others:
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- Repeat the name and the sound even if your toddler can’t spell it out.
- Speak in sentences like ‘George, say hello to your friend, Jack’. Repeat the entire sentence several times. Every time your toddler attempts to repeat the name, ask the person he’s speaking to to show interest and respond.
- For complicated names like Jacqueline, you can break the name in two parts or simply shorten it for your toddler. This will prevent him from becoming frustrated while learning the name.
Ask your child to use nicknames like Jo for Jonathan, but as soon as your toddler begins to spell out names correctly, refrain from using them and switch to proper names for everyone.
3. Encouragement and Praise for Your Toddler
At every step of the learning process, you toddler needs praise and encouragement. At the same time, you need to be extremely patient and flexible. Repetition of names, activities, events and stories are a way of life with a toddler in the house, so brace yourself for it. As your child gets older, he’ll demand more answers from you and you should be ready for them. It’ll encourage him to learn.
If you keep repeating the process, very soon your toddler will amaze you by recognising and identifying not only things but also people by their names. You should start this learning process early and as soon as possible so that when he grows up, he knows to use the right names for the right things and the right people.
