What Activities Might Encourage Cause & Effect for Toddlers?

Your baby began learning from day one.

Every touch, smile and snuggle taught your baby about his environment, and his first experiences with cause and effect probably occurred the first time you smiled or made a funny face at him. As he grew, he likely threw his spoon on the floor, watched you pick it up and then threw it again. Now that he's a full-fledged toddler, you can enhance his knowledge of cause and effect by playing and exploring with him.

Bubbles

Bubbles are an engaging way to teach your toddler about cause and effect. You know what happens when you dip the wand and blow, but your toddler will find it magical.

Encourage your tot to chase and pop the bubbles or try blowing them himself. Experiment with wands of different sizes and shapes, or wave your arms around to form bubbles instead of blowing. Watch the bubbles float in the wind, settle on the grass or pop when they hit a tree. Say things like, "Wow! How did that one pop?" or "When the wind blows, the bubbles get pushed in that direction!"

Blocks

Five Activities With a Ball for Infants & Toddlers

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While it might seem like your toddler is practicing destruction when he sends block towers crashing to the ground, he's actually learning about cause and effect. Encourage your toddler to build the tallest, widest, shortest or narrowest tower he can. Instead of intervening, allow him to experience for himself what happens when the tower gets too tall and starts to wobble. Let him find out what happens when he rolls a ball into the base of the tower or sends his tractor rolling into its side.

Outdoor Play

Get outside with your toddler to experience cause and effect firsthand. Bring your child to the park to climb, slide, balance and swing.

Physical activities can teach toddlers concepts like a big push makes the swing go higher or a steep slide is faster than a gradual slide. Teeter-totters teach your toddler that his weight pushes him down while the weight of another child pops him up. Play on a balance beam to teach him that balancing requires careful foot placement and concentration -- or that without, he'll fall off.

Rolling, Pushing and Pulling

Tumbling Activities for Toddlers

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Teach cause and effect by playing on the floor with your toddler. Roll a ball back and forth to show that the harder you push, the faster the ball will go.

Make a ramp for toy cars and trucks to teach your child that the slope of the ramp makes the car go fast or slow.

Pull toys teach your toddler that the toy will follow behind him.

Set up a simple obstacle course with pillows, baskets or stuffed animals for your child to push, pull or ride through. Obstacles teach your child that he needs to slow down to go around an object, or that when he runs into a toy it will fall over.