Your Toddler: 18-36 Months

• 18-24 months: Learns new words every day. Carries books around and pretends to read. (Look for books that let your toddler touch, feel, scratch and smell or pull pop-ups in the pages.) May recognize specific books by their covers. Can develop a book-sharing routine with a parent. Says many words and "tells" stories. Understands that books are handled in certain ways.
• At about 18 months, children add new words to their vocabulary at the astounding rate of one every two hours.

• By age 2, most children have a vocabulary of 1,000 to 2,000 words and uses them in simple combinations like "me hungry" and "all gone."

• 24-36 months: Speaks in sentences. Answers and asks simple questions-especially "why" questions. Likes to join in while you read aloud. Imitates adult sounds, words, and motions of characters in books. Labels some items in pictures. Requests adults to read. Follows a storyline and remembers content. Likes hearing the same books read aloud over and over.

• By age 3, most children listen well to stories being read and enjoy naming objects in pictures. Children at this age begin making scribbles that look more like writing.

As you read to your toddler:

Find increasingly sophisticated ways to engage your child in what you read. Discussion builds comprehension skills. Ask who, what, why, when, where, and how questions. He or she is much more willing to play verbal games like, "What is this animal?", "How many birds can you see?", "What color is this car?", and "What do you think will happen next?"

Be sure to let your child respond. Be very patient as they develop their own language to reply. These questions stimulate the connection of brain cells on a physical level and develop thinking and skills on the mental level. The questions also draw an increasingly mobile child back to you and the book.

Other things you can do are:

• Keep paper and crayons available
• Select books with photos and pictures of children doing familiar things-eating, sleeping, playing
• Have sturdy books available within the child's reach—a low shelf or basket
• Choose books about food, animals, families and making friends
• Begin teaching that books are special. We keep books clean and handle them with respect so we don't damage them.
• Read stories with repetitious text and encourage your child to fill in rhymes and chant refrains

Books for your toddler:

• The Little Red Hen by Bryon Barton
• Clifford The Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
• Wibbly Pig Likes Bananas by Mick Inkpen
• Stellaluna by Jannell Cannon
• Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin
• Planes by Byron Barton
• Five Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
• Curious George by H. A. Rey
• The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss
• 1,2,3 by Tana Hoban
• Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett