OOliteracy Milestones Series: Young Toddlers

Discover how your busy toddler’s boundless curiosity and energy turn everyday moments into exciting adventures in language and learning.

Feature image for a blog post about literacy milestones toddlers aged 1-2. One young toddler in an orange dress on the left playing a toy wood drum. A second young toddler on the right side clutching wooden blocks in each hand.

Toddlers are bundles of energy, constantly on the move and eager to explore the world around them. This bustling stage of life is filled with boundless curiosity, where every new discovery is a stepping stone toward understanding and learning.

In this blog post, we’ll explore key literacy milestones for toddlers ages 1-2, offering insights into what you might expect and how to support your little one.

And the journey doesn’t stop here! Stay tuned for our next post, where we’ll explore the literacy milestones for toddlers aged 2-3, offering more tips and insights to support your child’s ongoing language development.

Young Toddler Literacy Milestones: 1-2 Years

Watching your toddler’s literacy skills blossom during the ages of 1-2 is an exhilarating journey. While it’s important to keep in mind that children develop at different paces, knowing the general literacy milestones you could expect to see at this age can allow you to provide targeted support and engaging activities that foster your toddler’s love for language and learning.

Literacy Milestones12-15 Months15-18 Months18-24 Months
Begins saying their first recognizable words, such as “mama,” “dada,” or names of familiar objects.
Responds to simple verbal requests and follows basic commands like “come here” or “give me.”
Tries to imitate animal sounds or simple words heard in speech.
Vocabulary expands to include more words (approx. 10-20 words). May start combining two words to form short phrases.
No longer puts books in their mouth straight away. Begins to turn pages of board books more independently.
Can point to some body parts and objects when an adult names them.
Engages in fine motor development activities such as banging blocks together, stacking two blocks, putting things in and out of containers, and using a spoon and cup.
May engage in supervised activities with safe art supplies, such as finger painting or using chunky brushes. Makes random marks with crayons using their whole hand to grasp crayons.
Begins to participate more actively in stories read aloud, particularly enjoying short stories and nursery rhymes with lots of repetition and rhyme.
May engage in supervised activities with safe art supplies, such as finger painting or using chunky brushes. Makes random marks with crayons using the whole hand to grasp crayons.
Tries to manipulate objects requiring increasing dexterity, such as opening and closing containers or turning knobs.
Imitates others and engages in parallel play.

Toddler Tales: Playful Literacy Fun

Get ready to join your little explorer in a world where words come to life, and every day is a new adventure in language and learning!

Naming objects and actions during everyday activities to continue to build their vocabulary.

Singing songs, playing musical games, and exploring different sounds together to stimulate interest in music and enhance their listening skills.

Reading short books with repetitive phrases and rhyming metrics, and spending time together looking through books with pictures and labels.

Keeping instructions clear and simple, and pausing to give your toddler amble time to process and respond.

Engaging in activities that provide practice stacking, pushing and pulling, and picking up and dropping objects into containers.

Choosing interactive books with flaps, textures, zippers and clasps for your toddler to explore.

Encouraging self feeding and pincer grasp development by providing finger foods, and utensils like safe spoons and forks, which enhances their coordination and grip.

Expanding single words or two-word phrases said by your toddler into simple sentences. For example, if your toddler says “cat,” you can say, “Yes, there is a black cat next to the tree.”

Offering chunky crayons, markers, or finger paints for supervised scribbling and drawing.

Asking simple questions such as “What is this?” and “Can you point to the horse?”

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I’m happy you’re here!

Hi, I’m Julie, the passionate creator of Ox & Owl Literacy. I enjoy empowering families and educators with wonderful resources to inspire fun, imaginative, and joyful learning opportunities for young kiddos.  You’ll find lots of recommended books, reading resources, and creative learning activities on this site aiming to help children fall in love with language, books, reading, and the transformational power of stories.

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