Toddler Led Walks: Language

Previously, I spoke of the many benefits of a toddler-led walk. However, there are many ways in which toddler-led walks out in your neighborhood (or in any location out in nature) can lead to so many other areas of learning without feeling like a lesson or something you need to prepare for. These are things you can always keep in your back pocket, so to speak, so that way when the time feels right or it feels natural, you can try it out.

Montessori learning (and any educational model rooted in knowledge of child development) starts with the concrete (real, hands on things that can be touched, seen, manipulated/moved) to the abstract. In toddlerhood, learning should all be hands-on and concrete. Therefore, practicing what they are learning about in the world around them happens concretely very naturally out in nature.

In what many educators would describe as a “teachable moment”, you as a parent can find a moment to extend your toddlers learning and understanding of the world by simply making observations and noticing the world around you. One area that this can happen almost seamlessly in during walks is trying to build upon your toddler’s language abilities. When I say language, I mean their ability to listen, to understand and build comprehension skills, to expand their receptive (heard) and expressive (spoken) vocabulary, and to acquire a variety of pre-reading skills.

To note: I did not categorize any of these by age because there is such a wide range of language ability during the toddler years. My hope is that parents with children of a variety of abilities are able to use my resources and adapt them to their own child's specific needs. There is no "right age" to introduce any of these. The "right time" is when you have observed readiness. If you are unsure of your child's readiness, you can try any of these suggestions. If at that point you do not feel as though your child is ready, do not push further. Instead move on and mentally note to look for signs of readiness over time and try at a later date. You do not want to force something (especially during a joyful, connection building walk) that your child is simply not ready for or not wanting to engage in. This is the age to build that foundation for your child's love of learning. Lean into that mindset and let go of a checklist of milestones and what you think your child should do/know by now. Follow the child in front of you, not the one the internet tells you they "should be". I digress...

Here are a collection of ideas, not an all encompassing list. Take what feels natural and right for the moment, and leave what doesn't serve you and your child. 

•  Introduction to new language: Whenever your child is engaging with you (as in not a focused, concentrated state on something else), name the things around you that you see, hear, smell, etc. I see an airplane. Do you hear that airplane? Look, up! This can be as simple as my airplane example or as complex as your child's vocabulary allows. Their ability to absorb new language at this age is unmatched after this plane of development (0-6 years old). 

• Stop/Go Game: Whenever you are outside with children, there may be a need (especially as they wander and lead) for you to stop them for safety. Therefore, it is essential that they understand what the word "stop" means. At a neutral time (not during a potentially dangerous moment), model your body stopping as you say "stop" and then going once you say "go". Repeat this until they naturally join you. If they have an older sibling, they can model along with you. Keep practicing like a game until you see that they are doing it repeatedly. We also later on practice the word "wait" in the same type of way because toddlers often lack the impulse control to wait for "go" if the situation calls for them to wait longer than a moment.

• Directional Language: This is very similar to the stop/go game, but focuses more around directionality. After mantainting some confidence in the stop/go game, I typically start off with words like straight and turn. Not as a command, but as a question introducing the language as I point. Would you like to go straight here or turn? After this, I typically move onto a similar question format using the words left and right. Would you like to turn left or turn right? If your child seems to be in a sensitive period for language and has mastered the general understanding of the other words well, you might try North, South, East, and West. Perhaps you could even bring a compass on your walk to show the direction you are going. This isn't to really know whether you are going North, South, East, or West, but for exposure to richer language in a concrete way. You may also come across the option to use words like over, under, through, around, across, or other prepositions that give locational vocabulary. 

• Object Scavenger Hunt: During your walk, take photos of the things they encounter often, such as a stop sign, a tree, or a bush. Print them out and laminate them if you can. Then, on your next walk, show them the first picture and have them hunt for them. Show them how to match the picture up to the object to check that it is the same. As they get better at this, you can make the pictures things that are harder to find or found less frequently. This is a pre-reading skill that helps with visual discrimination (or being able to spot differences). It also will naturally build vocabulary.

• People Watch: Toddlers absolutely do not need an invitation to do this because this is one of their favorite games. This is how they learn about social norms and the world around them. Therefore, you can build upon that natural curiosity by asking thoughtful questions. Where do you think they are going? Where do you think they live? Why do you think they were dressed like that? What do you think was inside their bag? It will vary depending upon the situation, but it does help them to think deeper and make inferences and connections using what they know. I also sometimes like to use animals as the subject of the questions, which can be really fun and include some animal specific vocabulary (like colony, flock, nest, etc.)

• I Spy- Vocabulary: I Spy is used as a sound game later on to help children learn about the beginning sounds in words. However, learning to play it early on can only aid in that later lesson. Playing "I Spy" as a vocabulary "lesson" can look like a wide range of things. It can be as a simple as I spy a car to I spy a hydrangea bush. Again, it really depends on your own child's language abilities and receptive vocabulary.

• I Spy- Colors: Once your child begins to show some understanding of discriminating between different colors (usually seen through sorting colors), you can begin to introduce their names. This is best done by stating the color at the end of a sentence. The leaf is green. Once you notice that they know some colors, you can play I Spy. I spy something blue. I would only choose colors you know that they know. You don't want this to feel hard (or even impossible if they don't know that color yet). These all should feel fun and be them practicing their new found learning and skills, not like a full lesson on colors. Also, when I play this, I usually choose a color that there is a lot of in that area. It doesn't matter which object of the color is chosen. This is just to help them apply their knowledge to real world understanding.

The beauty of this kind of learning is that it not only takes no preparation, cost, or materials, but the opportunities are endless. In "The Absorbent Mind", Montessori speaks at length about how young toddlers may not have the language to speak words or more than one word at a time, but can understand much more. They can understand full grammatical sentences and, therefore, we should speak to them in the way we wish for them to speak when their mouths are finally capable. Providing them with rich, varied opportunities for language, using real names for objects, and speaking with the same grammatical correctness you would speak to an adult is all essential to the toddler being able to eventually grow into a child who speaks with this same correctness. I will dive deeper into the development of language, speaking to toddlers, and on how to incorporate other teachable moments when taking a toddler-led walk in future posts.

For now, go outside, speak with your toddler as a whole, complete, capable person, and pretend you are a toddler by finding more joy in the journey than in the destination.