Toddler daycare programs may make a lot of people scratch their heads and think. Here you have an age group that is just learning to walk, still in diapers, and they only know so many words with which to communicate. Many of them still babble and drool. So, what can you teach a toddler? What could they learn from entering a toddler daycare program? Actually, they can learn a lot.

Birth to Five Is the "Sponge Era" 

Studying child development, you can and would learn that from birth to age five, child psychologists call this the "little sponges" era. Kids absorb a ton of information and learn from all they experience because their little brains are basically empty. You are born knowing nothing, but you have the capacity to soak up and recall all that you learn your whole life through. When you are very little, your "empty" brain remembers everything because your brain does not, as of yet, have an overload of information. Ergo, toddlers are ready to learn anything you teach them.

Toddlers Learn Through Play and Repetition

Toddlers are at an age where they have just figured out how to walk and run. Everything is at a new height to them, and there are many more new opportunities for exploration now that they can see higher than the couch cushions at home! They will play with anything and everything you give them, even though their attention spans are still short.

Teachers of these little ones know that they have to have about a dozen different toys, songs, and finger plays or hand games a the ready to keep the attention of these kids. Still, toddlers learn through repetition, such as counting to ten, singing about counting to ten, singing ABC's, etc. They also learn through play, as when a teacher might give them edible playdough so that toddlers can use their senses to explore the material for artistic and scientific purposes.

Speech and Social Skills Are Expanded

At this early stage, having others with which to interact encourages toddlers to recognize that there are people around them who want to play and have fun too. The toddlers spend their days interacting with teachers and each other, learning new words, learning sharing skills, and learning to talk more. These are important skills, which, even at the most basic levels, will be something they really need later in life.