Nurturing Early Learning in Toddlers: A Time of Rapid Transformation

Discover how to nurture your toddler's learning during their transformative early years!

This insightful guide explores the vital role of movement, connection and emotional intelligence in your child’s development. Learn why physical exploration, language through relationships, and understanding emotions are essential for building a strong foundation for future skills. Embrace the importance of supportive relationships and provide your toddler with the love, time, and space they need to thrive. Join us in celebrating this incredible journey of growth and learning and see how every moment can be a learning opportunity!

Nurturing Learning with Toddlers

Learning doesn’t begin when a child picks up a pencil.
Or when they sit at a desk for the first time.
It begins much earlier — with movement, with emotion, with connection.
And nowhere is this more true than in the toddler years.

These early years aren’t just a stepping stone to “real learning”.
They are real learning.

Before a child can write their name, they must first come to know who they are — emotionally, socially and physically.
And as they tumble, chatter, cling, run, and roar through the day, their brain is busy building the foundation for every future skill.

A time of transformation

Your toddler is in the midst of extraordinary change.
They’re discovering:

• What their body can do
• How to use language to express thoughts and needs
• What it means to be a friend
• How to navigate big, unfamiliar feelings

They’re developing the essential building blocks of literacy, numeracy, communication and emotional intelligence — not through flashcards or worksheets, but through life.

Through play.
Through exploration.
Through connection with the people around them.

It all starts in the body

Before a child can hold a pencil, they must learn to control their arms, their fingers, their balance.
Before they can sit and concentrate, they need time to move, climb, spin, and explore the space around them.

Physical development isn’t a distraction from learning — it’s a vital part of it.

So give your toddler:

• Space to move freely and confidently
• Time to climb, jump, crawl, and balance
• Toys they can manipulate, stack, build, and knock down

Each wobble and giggle is helping them understand their body — a body they’re only just getting to know.

Language grows through connection

Toddlers don’t just learn to talk by hearing words — they learn through relationships.

Through back-and-forth conversations, even if they’re mostly babble.
Through songs, stories, facial expressions, and silly games.
Through being listened to — really listened to — even when they don’t yet have the words.

You can nurture their communication skills by:

• Narrating what you’re doing together
• Waiting for their response, however it comes
• Celebrating every attempt at expression
• Reading together, often and joyfully

These moments don’t just teach language. They teach your child that their voice matters.

Emotions are not interruptions

A toddler’s day is full of emotions. Some are joyful. Others — not so much.

But these big feelings aren’t misbehaviour. They’re learning opportunities.
This is when your toddler learns what emotions are, and how to live with them.

Helping your child name their feelings, stay close when they’re overwhelmed, and showing them how to regulate through your calm presence — all of this supports not just emotional development, but long-term resilience and wellbeing.

Let them know:

• “It’s okay to feel sad/angry/frustrated.”
• “I’m here with you.”
• “We’ll get through this together.”

That’s the heart of emotional learning.

Relationships are everything

At this age, your toddler is learning what it means to be them, in relation to others.
They’re exploring boundaries, testing limits, forming preferences, and beginning to understand friendship.

These early experiences shape their sense of self, their empathy, and their capacity for trust.

You support this by:

• Offering consistent, loving responses
• Creating space for shared play with others
• Modelling kindness and patience
• Letting them lead, when it’s safe to do so

The more secure and supported they feel, the more confidently they’ll step into the world.

In the end…

Nurturing learning in toddlers isn’t about pushing them to achieve more, faster.
It’s about giving them what they need — time, space, and love — so their learning can unfold naturally.

Because when your child is given the chance to explore, to connect, to move and to grow…
They’re not just getting ready for school.
They’re building the strong, stable foundation that all learning sits on.

And there’s no rush.
Everything they need is already beginning to bloom.

Dr Kathryn Peckham is an Early Childhood Consultant, author and researcher and the founder of Nurturing Childhoods and the Nurturing Childhoods Academy.  Providing all the knowledge, understanding and support you need to nurture the children in your life.