How to Introduce Colors to Your Toddler

Having worked in the field of Early Intervention, providing play therapy to delayed children birth to three years of age in their homes, I have worked with many toddlers. The goal of Early Intervention is to help a child reach their optimal level of development before it's time for us to say our goodbye's. One skill I would often find myself working on with toddlers was knowledge of their colors. Here is a very simple way to begin introducing colors to your toddler:

Choose a bold primary color, such as blue. Throughout your day, find yourself choosing just one color to work on. Name that color as you go, as you play. Each day, use only this one color until you know that your child understands what it is. You should know if you say "which color is blue?" when you have a few different colors in front of you and your child chooses correctly. Once your child knows this one color, then move on to another color but don't forget that initial color you had chosen. So if there is a green fish on a puzzle, say "green fish. The color green." Then if there is a blue fish also, ask your child where the blue fish is and see if they will point. If you introduce one color at a time, then you are keeping it very simple for your toddler so as not to confuse them or overstimulate them.

You may find yourself seeing color when you are:

Playing with puzzles
Pointing out objects in books
Coloring with crayons/markers
Playing with play dough
Cooking food
Getting dressed in the morning
Grocery shopping
Playing in the bathtub during bath time

Say you choose to work on the color blue and you're getting dressed in the morning. You are wearing a blue shirt and you've also chosen a blue shirt to put on your child. Point this out. Say something along the lines of "look, I'm wearing a blue shirt." Then point at your child's shirt and tell them that they are wearing blue, too. Then take a look at the pants which happen to be of a different color. Point this out to them as well so they have a comparison. "No, not blue." Then point to your shirt once again "but my shirt is blue." And point to their shirt as well "and you're shirt is blue, too!"

Just remember that repetition is key. The more you repeat the color for your child to hear, the more likely it will sink in and your child will begin to realize what a color indeed is. The beauty of color is that it's everywhere. You can work on identification throughout your days. Have fun!