In-depth investigations

Let children's development in motor and intellectual abilities be your guide when choosing equipment that will stimulate those aged one to two years. Jenny Benjamin advises on some generic resources and some best buys Between the ages of 12 and 18 months, most children move up a gear in their developing relationship with the world. Already they have progressed from their first cursory encounters to more thorough examination. Now, as they move into their second year of life, curiosity and dexterity increase, and examination becomes experimentation. It is no longer enough to thoroughly experience something, and find out how it looks from all angles, how it feels, tastes and smells. Now, they have to find out what it does if they push it, squeeze it, bang it or drop it. They start to enjoy malleable things - dough, mud, water, sand - discovering that they can make these materials behave in amazing ways. Dough or clay will take on new shapes, water will spread out in a huge puddle when you spill a small bit, and dry sand will pour like water.