I picked up this old school phone from a charity shop for $2 and it's August's new fave. This wasn't a random purchase - I've wanted one for a while - but why?!

FOR PRETEND PLAY. Now that we can pretend to make phone calls, August can re-enact familiar routines such as calling Nana. This develops his ability to imagine different scenarios and create ways to respond. Research has shown that pretend play develops theory of mind. Theory of mind is when children learn that other people have different thoughts and perspectives to their own.

Watch him play here

FOR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT.
We use certain 'scripts' when we talk on the phone as adults, saying things like "hello Zazi speaking" and "how are you?". Talking on the phone gives August an opportunity to copy my mannerisms and practice the same scripts. When I join in and pretend to talk on the phone, I can model:
📞questions "what time are you coming home?"
📞feelings "I'm fine!"
📞future tense "shall we go to the shops?"
📞past tense "it was very windy today"
📞greetings "hello!"

COUNTING
Auggie is really into counting at the moment and I wanted to provide something that naturally has numbers on. This is more FUNCTIONAL that anything unnatural like flash cards or posters - a phone is where you'd typically find and use numbers in life so practice on a phone carries on into everyday life. We're also going to use it like a card machine at the shops - another place August sees numbers!

For a couple of dollars - you could be adding all sorts to your child's kete! Would love to see all the weird and wonderful things you can pick up from your local Opshop