A little idea to try together.

Help your child pass or slide one large lightweight toy to a nearby person or floor basket.

Pause together to notice and name sounds around the house or outside.

Offer two real options and wait for a look, gesture, sound or word.

Pause before a familiar word in a song or rhyme and let your child join in.

Look at a few familiar photos and talk about the people and actions.

Follow your child's attention through a short book instead of reading every word.

Describe what your child is already doing using short, useful phrases.

Choose visible familiar toys from a shallow open basket and name or act them out.

Hide part of a familiar toy behind an adult-held sturdy book cover and narrate the search.

Use your bare hand as a tiny pretend character for a back-and-forth greeting.

Add a few predictable words to dressing, washing or packing away.

Take turns choosing an animal and making its sound or movement.

Use three pictures or familiar objects to retell a well-known story in the child's own words, actions or sounds.

Choose two playful action words, then agree on a silly meaning swap without requiring the child to comply.

Choose a familiar word and enjoy playful real or invented words that sound the same at the end.

Hide one familiar object from view and trade clues about how it looks, feels or is used.

Use two simple hand puppets or soft toys to explore a pretend conversation in any communication style.

Listen to the beginnings of two familiar names without turning early sound awareness into a test.

Copy one thing your child does, then offer a simple action for them to copy.

Roll a soft ball back and forth with a clear pause for each turn.

Make gentle feeling faces together and name them without testing.

Invite your child to pass one large soft item into an adult-held floor basket.

Use a doll or soft toy to act out comforting, feeding or resting.

Pass a greeting around the family and wait for each person's response.

During play, pause and wait for your child's signal before continuing.

Turn packing away into a shared, predictable closing ritual.

Let your child choose between two songs and lead the actions.

Build a tower by adding one block each without correcting the result.

Move a toy briefly behind your hands, then welcome it back together.

Trade quiet open-hand rhythms on an adult-held toddler drum or bowl.

Set up a tiny pretend shop and swap shopper and shopkeeper roles while following the child's ideas.

Take turns adding large blocks to one shared tower and decide together what to do when it changes or falls.

Choose one real, manageable household task together without tying help to being good, lovable or rewarded.

Use playful face and body choices to notice visible expressions without labelling the child's inner state.

Plan a floor-level pretend picnic together by choosing a place, a few props and a role for each participant.

Create a simple clap, tap or gesture pattern and pass it back and forth, with either person free to change it.

Offer two containers and lids for trial-and-error matching.

Use a flat play mat as a path for a large toy and explore along, around and beside.

Sort a few clean items into two meaningful groups.

Explore how sturdy cups fit inside, on top of and beside one another.

Use cushions or blocks to solve a tiny pretend travel problem.

Hide a toy behind one of two adult-held sturdy board-book covers and track where it is.

Work out how large rigid shapes pass through a purpose-made posting toy.

Match three familiar objects to simple outlines drawn on paper.

Send two large toys down a short adult-held rigid toy ramp and compare what happens.

Follow a tiny clue sequence to find a familiar object.

Create a simple action pattern and move it around the room.

Choose what will fit in a shallow open basket for a pretend outing.

Sort a small set of large familiar objects by one visible feature, then choose a different rule and sort again.

Arrange three familiar routine pictures or objects and wonder together what could come next, allowing more than one sensible answer.

Draw a simple map of one room together and use it to find a familiar location or object.

Predict which of several large containers will hold a set of large objects, then test and revise the idea.

Roll one large ball down a purpose-made or carefully secured low ramp and make simple predictions before changing one thing.

Choose a simple building goal and explore another possible structure only while interest continues.

Lift and post large rigid rings using both hands.

Lift permanently attached tabs on a purpose-made toddler activity board.

Move and squeeze one dry one-piece silicone toddler toy between two floor spots.

Pull loosely nested socks apart and place pairs together.

Place broad washable crayon marks along a simple adult-drawn road.

Open, fill and close easy containers during pretend café play.

Press and post one adult-held purpose-made crinkle toy through a wide toddler posting toy.

Spread, stack and loosely fold small washcloths.

Post large rigid shapes through a purpose-made wide opening.

Share the two jobs of holding and pulling a large sturdy zip.

Explore three hand actions with homemade or child-safe playdough.

Scoop large fabric pieces between bowls in pretend meal play.

Use large easy-grip pegs to free picture cards or fabric pieces from the edge of a sturdy container.

Tear broad strips of paper and overlap the pieces with a glue stick to make an open-ended picture.

Thread large purpose-made shapes onto a thick cord with fixed ends, making any order or repeating pattern the child chooses.

Draw wide connected roads for large toy vehicles, adding turns, destinations and changes as the play develops.

Move large soft items between two bowls using child-sized tongs, hands or both, with no race or score.

Fold a large sheet around a soft toy, press the creases and reopen it as part of pretend delivery play.

Travel beside a short flat floor path in your child's usual way.

Copy simple animal movements across a clear room.

Place two towels into a stationary adult-held floor basket and unload them together.

Dance to your own singing and freeze when the sound stops.

Roll a large soft ball towards a wall and chase its return.

Follow an existing floor seam or a broad adult-made chalk line along a simple level route.

Roll a large soft ball gently and move to collect it.

Choose a movement to do beside a flat floor marker placed away from doorways.

Push and roll a large soft toy across the floor together.

Kick or nudge a large soft ball towards a broad cushion target.

Move soft items between two wide floor-level destinations.

Take turns leading a short route around safe household landmarks.

Follow a wide taped or chalk path on level ground, choosing different safe ways to travel along it.

Choose a familiar animal and invent a floor-level movement from any comfortable position.

Move to a familiar song and take turns giving gentle stop and go signals, with stopping treated as play rather than compliance practice.

Roll a large soft ball toward a wide floor target and adjust distance, direction or force together.

Walk beside or along a flat floor line using ordinary steps, side steps or a chosen slow movement.

Move one large lightweight item at a time across a clear short route and place it into a matching floor-level group without speed or competition.

Lay an adult-inspected cardboard panel flat as an open setting for large toys.

Look at colours and textures outdoors while the adult points without collecting loose objects.

Explore quiet and gentle sounds on an adult-held toddler drum or bowl.

Make temporary marks with an adult-wrung damp toddler mark-maker on a dry shaded outdoor surface.

Let one large rigid toy become weather, an animal, a road or something entirely new.

Make large washable marks on paper secured to the floor.

Notice body and toy shadows in natural light.

Use a flat play mat as an open landscape and path for large toys.

Compare two safe, clean floor textures with hands or bare feet.

Choose, carry and exchange familiar safe objects in a pretend shop.

Move like the lines, shapes or characters in a picture.

Use a flat play mat as an open awake-play place for a short book or large toy.

Choose a few quiet caregiver-controlled sounds and weave them into a child-led story with no expected plot or performance.

Arrange large reusable fabric and card pieces into a temporary picture, then change or pack it away.

Mix two small amounts of washable paint and explore the changing colour with broad marks rather than aiming for a finished picture.

Turn large clean cardboard pieces into a floor-level setting for toys using folds, drawings and open-ended pretend ideas.

Use daylight or an adult-controlled cool-touch LED to make slow hand shadows and invent a short child-led scene.

Pause near the end of a familiar story and invent a different ending together through words, drawing or pretend action.