Toys Detail - Help My Baby Learn

Handpicked toys for babies 18 – 24 Months

Fisher-Price Butterfly Shape Sorter

Why this toy? Fisher-Price’s Butterfly Shape Sorter is another one of the biggest “bang for your buck” toy purchases as it grows with your baby and toddler and stimulates developmental milestones all of the way to over 3 years old! It provides for excellent open-ended play opportunities that allow for developing basic play skills, problem solving, social play and creative play!

Drawbacks: A common issue when toddlers who are learning how to play with this shape sorter is that they love to take the lid of the container off in order to put the shapes inside rather than trying to put them through the appropriate holes in the lid. It would be nice if there was a way to fasten the lid onto the container, but other than that, this is an excellent toy for babies and toddlers!

Developmental Milestone Benefits for age 18-24 months old:

Cognitive:

Placing circle, square and triangle into puzzle board

Placing shapes into shape sorter independently

Identifying 6+ body parts

Introducing colors

Language:

Building a vocabulary of 50 words

Speaking using 2-word phrases

How to play with the toy:

Language:

When playing with the shape sorter with your toddler, in addition to talking about the actions that she’s doing with the toy, you can continue to talk about the colors and shapes of the shapes. This will begin to teach preschool readiness skills of shape and color while helping to develop your toddler’s vocabulary.
When your toddler says something referring to the shapes, you can expand on what she says to make it form a 2-word phrase (i.e. she says “circle”, you can say “blue circle”)

Placing pieces into shape sorter/Placing circle/square into puzzle:

At this age, your toddler understands the concept of putting the shapes into the shape sorter and, most likely, won’t take the lid off of the container as frequently.
You can now provide choices for your toddler so that she can problem solve which is the correct place to place each piece.
Only provide 2-3 choices and continue to cover the remaining holes in the lid of the container. If 3 choices is too much, only provide 2 choices to help your toddler focus.
Use the basic shapes of the circle, square and triangle at this point, and you can progress to the more challenging shapes as your toddler gets older.
Be patient as it can become frustrating for your toddler if she’s unable to fit the piece into the hole.
If your toddler become frustrated, help her to put the piece into the correct hole and praise her for her attempts.

Learning body parts:

You can place the shapes on your body including putting a shape on your head, or simply touching it to part of your body. Every time you do this, you can talk about what part of your body you are teaching (i.e. “The square’s on Mommy’s head!” or “The square’s on Mommy’s arm!”).
You can do the same for your toddler. “The square’s on Sally’s head!” or “The square’s on Sally’s tummy!”.
You can go back and forth with your toddler: “The square’s on Mommy’s head. Now the square’s on Sally’s head!”
If your toddler takes the shape off of her head or picks it up when it falls off of her head, you can ask her to hand you the shape. She may require prompting to actually hand you the toy.

Colors:

You can talk about what color shape your toddler’s playing with at any time.
You can match the color the shape to the other shape of the same color (i.e. “Look, it’s a blue circle and blue circle. Same Same!”

Colors and Body Parts at the same time:

You can name the color of the shape as you put it either on your body or on your toddler’s.
i.e. “The red triangle is on Mommy’s head!” or “The red triangle is on Sally’s head!”

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