Your little scientist is continuing her exploration of the world! At 12-18 months old, she is actively experimenting and building her knowledge base, according to child psychologist Jean Piaget.¹ What this means is that she’s no longer just watching and absorbing information from the world around her, but is participating in her own learning process. You will see her examining novel items with her different senses (“What does my block taste like?”), using her current knowledge in new situations (“My sippy cup holds liquid. I wonder if this measuring cup will hold liquid too?”), and trying new actions on items to see what will happen² (“When I throw my ball, it bounces. I wonder what will happen when I throw my plate?”). With her growing Initiative and Curiosity and cognitive abilities, your baby will be making huge leaps and bounds in her Scientific Knowledge and Scientific Observation skills.

Your baby’s developing ability to identify and process new information through Scientific Observation and build Scientific Knowledge is due to many advancing mental abilities. During the first year, babies typically focus on novel, simple, and eye-catching events, sights, sounds, and smells.³ But as they age into toddlers, they are better able to concentrate on intentional, goal-oriented activities (e.g. stacking blocks)⁴ and explore the little details of an object’s features and functions.⁵ These tasks help them put their growing knowledge into categories.

Categorization is important for building Scientific Knowledge, because it helps young children sort through the large amounts of information they’re absorbing and place them into types and groups they can learn and remember.^5,6 As she gets older, your 12- to 18-month-old will be able to categorize objects and experiences based on more complex qualities and characteristics, including materials (e.g. soft vs. hard)⁷ and play behaviors (e.g. offering food to a toy rabbit instead of a toy car).⁸

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In addition to categorization, your baby’s current Vocabulary Knowledge has a major influence on her understanding of Scientific Knowledge. Teaching children as young as 3-4 months old the names of objects and their parts (e.g. animals, body parts, flowers), characteristics (e.g. color, texture, smell), and actions (e.g. eat, sleep, run) will help them focus on the finer details of objects and events and begin using their categorization skills.^3,9 Be sure to use task-centered talk, which describes everything your baby sees, feels, hears, smells, and tastes, to support the Vocabulary Knowledge and categorization skills needed to build her knowledge base.¹⁰

Another development at 12-18 months of age is your baby’s ability to identify herself and familiar people when looking at pictures or in a mirror.¹¹ She also probably knows many body parts by now and is able to identify them by pointing to each one when asked.¹¹ To strengthen her knowledge of body parts, consider doing body exploration activities together. Sing simple songs with her, like “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” dance the “Hokey Pokey,” or play Simon Says, which are all great ways to practice body awareness and build her Vocabulary Knowledge.

She will also use her senses in more advanced ways to experience, question, and explore everything she comes across in the world around her. As part of her Scientific Observations, you may see her inspect her craft dough, crayons, and finger paints closely, taking in the scent, texture, temperature, elasticity, and colors.² Or, during an outing to the local park, she may enjoy touching all of the flowers and plants she comes across.

You can also build her Scientific Observation skills by encouraging outdoor play! Make it an adventure by finding and observing interesting new objects found in nature. Take a walk together and point out the interesting things you come across, such as a ladybug walking along a leaf, a hummingbird hovering by flowers to eat, and different types of flowers (e.g. morning glories are interesting because they only bloom in the morning).² Not only will this help develop your baby’s enjoyment of nature and the outdoors, but it will allow her to see science work its magic before her very eyes. Be sure to keep an eye on your baby during explorations, however, to keep her from touching wild animals or plants that may cause harm or an allergic reaction.

Play Tips:

Do you want to know how you can support your baby’s development of Scientific Knowledge and Scientific Observation skills at this age? It’s easy! Read on for some simple tips to incorporate into your daily play time together.

1. Do body exploration activities together. As your baby’s Scientific Knowledge and Vocabulary Knowledge grow, she will start to identify her various body parts,¹¹ especially if you help by naming and identifying her body parts throughout the day in body exploration activities together.¹² Try pointing to her legs, feet, and toes when you change her diaper, ask her to wash her belly, knees, or elbows in the bath, sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” or play “I See Me!” by standing your child in front of a mirror and pointing to her different body parts.
2. Offer a variety of objects and toys that support sensory exploration.¹¹ Provide your baby with different art materials, toys, and learning experiences that help stretch her problem solving skills and exploration through the senses. Consider sand, water toys, play wheels, play instruments that make sounds, finger paints, and craft dough. Build on your baby’s understanding by describing everything she is experiencing and asking her leading questions that expand her knowledge about the activity and objects used (e.g. “What does the craft dough feel like? I think it feels soft, and you can make shapes with it” or “What colors do you see? That’s red, and this dough is yellow.”).
3. Explore science up close with nature walks.¹³ Make exploring the great outdoors a grand adventure together. Bring a small basket or bucket to collect interesting finds as you wander around like a detective. Use a magnifying glass to give her a look at the finer details of plants, insects, and rocks. Ask leading questions that help build your baby’s understanding of the objects she comes across,¹¹ (e.g. “Touch this flower. What does the petal feel like? It feels velvety and soft to me” or “What does the flower smell like? Hmmm, it smells sweet and pleasant, doesn’t it?”). Be sure to teach her how to be respectful of nature and its little creatures and plants, and look out for any potential hazards and allergens you may encounter during your playtime.

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Developmental Milestones:

Has your baby achieved the following Scientific Knowledge and Scientific Observation developmental milestones yet? If yes, check off all the skill(s) she has already mastered to date using Playful Bee’s developmental milestones tracker. It’s absolutely FREE and easy to use, just click HERE!

• Points to body parts when named.

Sources:

¹Piaget, Jean (1983). Piaget’s theory. In P. Mussen (ed). Handbook of Child Psychology. 4th edition. Vol. 1. New York, NY: Wiley.

²Rhode Island Board of Education (2013). Rhode Island Early Learning and Development Standards.

³Berk, Laura E. (2011). Infants, Children, and Adolescents (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, Inc.

⁴Ruff, Holly A. and Capozzoli, Mary C. (2003). Development of Attention and Distractibility in the First Four Years of Life. Developmental Psychology, 39, 877-890.

⁵Cohen, Leslie B. (2003). Commentary on Part 1: Unresolved Issues in Infant Categorization. In D.H. Rakison and L. M. Oakes (Eds.), Early Category and Concept Development: Making Sense of the Blooming, Buzzing Confusion (pp. 193-209). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

⁶Oakes, Lisa M. and Madole, Kelly L. (2003). Principles of Developmental Change in Infants’ Category Formation. In D.H. Rakison and L.M. Oakes (Eds.), Early Category and Concept Development: Making Sense of the Blooming, Buzzing Confusion (pp. 132-158). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

⁷Ellis, Ann E. and Oakes, Lisa M. (2006). Infant Flexibly Use Different Dimensions to Categorize Objects. Developmental Psychology, 42, 1000-1011.

⁸Mandler, Jean M. and McDonough, Laraine (1998). On Developing a Knowledge Base in Infancy. Developmental Psychology, 34, 1274-1288.

⁹Cohen, Leslie B. and Brunt, Jason (2009). Early Word Learning and Categorization: Methodological Issues and Recent Empirical Evidence. In John Colombo, Peggy McCardle, and Lisa Freund (Eds.), Infant Pathways to Language: Methods, Models, and Research Disorders (pp. 245-266). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

¹⁰Gellens, Suzanne R. (2013). Building Brains. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

¹¹Maryland State Department of Education (2010). Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth through Three Years of Age.

¹²Alabama Department of Human Resources. Alabama Early Learning Guidelines. 

¹³Oklahoma Child Care Services. Oklahoma Learning Guidelines for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos: Ages 0 through 36 Months.

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Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee

Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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