Ways To Encourage Social/ Emotional Play With Toddlers By Using Baby Dolls

Hi Friends!

A new year means new skills to learn and this month I’m working with Zeke to learn his common body parts and social emotional skills. I remember doing this with Isaiah only a short while ago and he loved using his Mr Potato head to discover facial features and practice pretend play. My sixteen month old loves copying his big brother and naturally picked up a few pretend play habits (stirring a pot, eating pretend food...) but was having trouble getting facial features down. I immediately got the potato head out to show him things like “eyes, nose and ears” but to much of my surprise he was not as interested as Isaiah was with it. Honestly, I should have seen this coming!

I went around looking for something to help bridge the gap and show him different body parts on something that resembled him... I got the bright idea to get him a baby doll and I’m so glad I did!

I was very picky in choosing a baby for Ezekiel because my kids are rough and I didn’t want to invest a ton of money in a baby that I knew wouldn‘t last long. I also wanted a brown baby and tried my best to find one that looked like my son. I ended up going with one from the Baby Alive Littles line that was both reasonably priced and offered a wide variety of skin tones. This one doesn’t have all the bells and whistles and that’s exactly what I wanted! Just a simple baby doll thats small and offers representation for my kids. I purchased mines at target for $4.99 during a sale but I believe they go for around $11 retail. His name is baby Simon and he is so cute!

Right away Zeke took to him and was able to point to his eyes and nose. I knew he had an idea of what items were where he just needed a different tool to practice on. My three year old Isaiah also really liked feeding the baby pretend pizza and juice. I can definitely see this being in our toy collection for years to come. Below are some games to play with your child’s baby to help encourage social emotional play.

• Feed The Baby Pretend Food/ Drinks

• Play Where’s The Baby? With Peekaboo

• Sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes pointing to each part on the baby

• Pretend to put baby to sleep

• Give Baby A Pretend Bath

• Put a Band Aid on Baby to help him feel better / Doctor

The most important thing is to model all actions as much as possible. Model hugging the baby or rocking it and other natural interactions you know of between caretaker and child. Kids are such sponges and will be observing every action to do and it won’t be long before they start copying you! This is great for development in both girls and boys to mimic what you do and start caring for babies and animals. If you have a 12-24 month old give this a try!

We’re in a brand new year and if you’re in need of weekly play inspiration, subscribe to the blog to have posts sent right to your email! I would love to have you join in on the fun! I love creating easy, low prep activities for children ages 0-5. If that’s your jam too you’ve come to the right place.There are plenty of previous posts to help give you play inspiration that’ll encourage quality time with your kiddos. Looking forward to having you here in this community! Have fun playing today!

-Najah