Learning about emotions helps your child feel happier and cope better with problems. You can help your child learn about emotions anytime and anywhere. Choose an emotion, name the emotion, and show your child the emotion with your face and body.

Your child is learning to express and manage emotions. This is great news for your child and for you, because it means less frustration and impatience and fewer tantrums.

By your child’s fourth birthday, his language skills have developed a lot. He enjoys talking and asking questions, even if he makes some mistakes. Here are some play ideas to help preschoolers with talking and language.

Play and interact with your toddler Talk and read Ways to read

Reading, storytelling, talking and singing with your toddler helps him learn about sounds, words and language.Try to read daily with your toddler. Ask your child to fill in the words in stories she knows, and name what she sees in the pictures.Your toddler might enjoy books with animals, stories about playtime, and lift-the-flap and pop-up books. See book suggestions below.

Visiting a library with your child can foster a love of books and reading.Your child can borrow lots of books for free.Libraries also have story time and other activities for children.

Museum activities can be fun and engaging for children.Look for child-friendly museums near you or museums that suit your child’s interests.Tell your child about the museum before you go, and follow your child’s lead when you get there.

Playdough is a great sensory and learning experience for children.Playing with playdough is good for creativity, muscle strength and fine motor skills.You can buy playdough or use homemade playdough.

Play is key to all areas of children’s development, including movement and motor skills development.Preschoolers generally enjoy being active, although different children prefer different activities.Play ideas for preschooler movement include play with balls, boxes and pegs, outdoor play, rough-and-tumble play, and nature play.

Play fosters creativity and imagination in preschoolers, which is important for overall development.Preschoolers have vivid imaginations. They often enjoy pretend games, and making art, craft and music.Play ideas to stimulate preschooler imagination include reading, nature walks, busy boxes, dress-ups, puppet play and more.