Child development
Brought to you by LEGO Duplo
Baby in Bloom (Up to 2 years)
The first few years of a baby’s life are precious for parents. There’s nothing quite like watching children take their first uncertain steps or hearing that magical first word.
Even after having learned their first words, children will explore the world and express themselves mainly through play - in fact, playing is the very first ‘language’ we all learn. And watching your child play is your way of listening.
From age 1½, you can start stacking LEGO DUPLO bricks together or look at different colour combinations. It probably won’t be too long before your child has acquired the fine motor skills to do some basic stacking without your help. You can also practice animal names and sounds together with Rabbit, Giraffe and the other DUPLO animals.
Reflecting Reality (2 years)
Your child still learns by playing - and with the onset of imagination comes the urge to go shopping, have tea parties or drive great, big busses. Pretend busses, of course. Copying grown-ups and our activities is your child’s way of getting to understand more about the world at this age.
Your child will also probably start putting LEGO DUPLO bricks together to make small towers - and just as probably knock them over straight away and start over. That’s just your child’s way of saying “Practice makes perfect”. All this practice will be followed by more creative building and lead to an improved understanding of shapes and colours.
Your child will still love all sorts of animals - including Rabbit and his DUPLO friends - and be very interested in stories and talks about where they live and what they eat.
Imaginary Independence (3 years)
At age 3, your child will begin to love company - and especially playing together. There’s so much to learn for a three-year-old, but with a little encouragement and praise from Mum and Dad everything becomes exciting and worth learning.
Although the old familiar LEGO DUPLO bricks, animals and figures will still be important to your child, a lot of the time will be spent role-playing and playing pretend. Don’t be surprised if you happen to overhear some spectacularly funny conversations on make-believe calls along the way.
Childish Curiosity (4 years)
They speak in questions. That’s four-year-olds in a nutshell. Your child is incredibly curious about the world and everything in it, so prepare to answer all sorts of questions. We bet at least one of them will have you stumped and become the stuff of family legend - you know, the kind your child will be embarrassed to hear repeated in a graduation speech down the line.
Four-year-olds enjoy playing with friends and their creative building with LEGO DUPLO will become more and more advanced. You can help to trigger your child’s imagination and spark new ideas by combining different LEGO DUPLO sets - what happens, for example, when Cinderella takes an elephant for a ride in the fire truck? Or when the Princess Castle doubles as a rocket?
Prepare With Possibilities (5 years)
You won’t be too far off if you think of your five-year-old as a miniature version of Christopher Columbus or Marco Polo. Every corner of the world must be explored to figure out what is possible and what is impossible - what is right and what is wrong. Getting to the cookie jar is just one example of such investigations. The independence, self-awareness and understanding of the world required to go exploring like this shows that your child is rapidly approaching school age.
At this age, your child will also probably be eager to start playing with the classic LEGO system - “DUPLO is for babies, Mum and Dad”. This is a healthy sign that your child is ready for new and more complex challenges. For an easy start with the LEGO brick try one of the LEGO Juniors sets, which children aged 4-7 will be able to build with little or no help from their parents.