Teaching Activities for Developmentally Delayed Toddlers
Normal development for a child means that certain skills, such as motor and speech, are mastered by a specific age. If a toddler is not performing tasks like other children in the same age group, it can indicate a developmental delay. As a teacher of toddlers who are in this category, encourage your class to engage in activities that are fun, educational and build important skills.
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Touch
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Toddlers experience the world through each of their five senses. Touch is a powerful sense that helps a developmentally disabled child understand items and people by feeling them. An effective activity that enhances a toddler's learning through the touch sense is using hands or feet in a bin of rice. If you are teaching the alphabet or numbers to your class, have each toddler trace them in a thin layer of rice. Also, offer items of different textures, such as rough sandpaper, soft cloth or a furry stuffed animal.
Music
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A study published in 2010 by German researchers showed that music can positively impact developmentally delayed children in areas such as their minds. Play a variety of tunes for toddlers. Classical music can sound quietly in the background to calm before naps. Have the class dance to children's songs. Make up simple rhyming words to silly music. Use fun instruments like rice shakers, bells, triangles and tambourines to march around the room, twirl and dance to the rhythm.
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Speech
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Speech can be improved and strengthened with many activities. Help toddlers form stronger jaws with exercises like blowing. Take the toddlers outside to pick dandelions and blow them off the stem. Let the children chase the seeds for fun. Have them imitate you as you move your jaw back and forth and side to side. Suck and lick frozen fruit or other treats. Practice saying words with the toddlers. Start by saying simple rhyming words slowly, and have the class try their best to repeat the sounds.
Physical
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Some developmentally delayed toddlers have trouble walking or keeping balance. Others may lack muscle strength or tone. Physical activities are fun and help strengthen motor skills. Toddlers can swing, jump and balance to practice a variety of physical exercises. Hold the toddlers' hands as they walk on a balance beam a few inches from the ground and jump off. Have the children grab and swing on a rope that is close to the ground. Help them regain their balance after they let go.
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References
- How Kids Develop: What Is Developmental Delay and What Services Are Available If I Think My Child Might Be Delayed?
- Scholastic: Meeting Learning Challenges: Working With Children Who Have Developmental Delays
- Sensory Processing: Playing With Rice
- National Network for Child Care: Children With Disabilities or Special Needs
- BioMed Central: Effects of Music Therapy in the Treatment of Children With Delayed Speech Development -- Results of a Pilot Study
- The Special Needs Child: Speech Activities
- Sensory Processing: Provide Physical Exercise
