Know the Noise*

Your toddler loves to listen—to music, to voices, to animals.

Enhance his listening skills with a variety of familiar sounds he can guess. All you need is a portable cassette recorder or a phone with a recorder in it.

Learning Skills:

• Cause and effect
• Classification skills
• Listening skills

Materials:

• Portable cassette recorder and tape
• Interesting sounds

What to do:

1. Use a tape recorder/ your phone to record a variety of interesting sounds, such as a dog barking, a familiar children's song, musical toy, Daddy’s voice, telephone ringing, keys jangling, and so on. Allow some time between each noise.
2. Play the tape for your toddler and see if he can guess each sound. If you have not left enough time between noises, stop the tape after each noise and allow your child to guess.
3. Play the tape again; this time, demonstrate the source of each noise as it plays.

Safety:
Be sure the noises are loud enough to be heard, but soft enough to avoid startling your toddler