Sounds around me

These activities are suitable for children aged 15-24 months and align with stage 3 of the Developmental Journal Babies Visual Impairment (DJVI)

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Safety first

What you'll need

No extra resources needed.

Tips

It’s important to help your child to understand the sounds around them, both indoors and out. Some noises may direct your child towards a favourite toy or indicate a certain daily routine. For example, water running in the bath may let your child know it’s the start of their bedtime routine.

Activity

Tell your child about key noises inside and outside the home. If the noise is in a different room, ask them to listen carefully and tell them the noise.

Some noises can be quite startling (for example, hairdryers and hoovers), so introducing these from a distance may be better.

'Listen can you hear...?'

  • Washing Machine
  • Hoover
  • Bath running
  • Hairdryer

By listening to noises in different rooms, your child will start to associate loudness with distance. They may begin to realise the closer they get to the source of a sound that loudness increases.

When playing outdoors, encourage your child to listen for different sounds and again label these for your child to explain what the noises and sounds related to.  For example, listen for the birds, different traffic noise, the pedestrian crossing or a cyclist ringing a bicycle bell.

As your child grows and develops and begins to name noises, you could record a range of noises on your mobile phone and play them back as part of a game. See how many your child can identify.

Please supervise your child at all times while completing any of these activities.

Need to print this?

Download a PDF version of the activity below.