Naming Body Parts
Where's your nose, where's your elbow: the words for the body arrive through the pointing finger.
Naming Body Parts is a Montessori activity for a child aged 18 to 24 months. Area: Language. Time: 5 min.
What the activity builds
Build body vocabulary through the three-period lesson, using the most available material there is: your child themselves. Touching while naming anchors the word in the sensation, far more solidly than a picture.
The materials
- No material needed: your child, you, and maybe a mirror
- A doll or a stuffed animal, if you want to vary it later
- A calm moment, on your lap or seated face to face
How to do it, step by step
- First period, you name while touching: place their finger on their nose, "nose." Then "hand." Then "foot." Three words, no more.
- Leave a moment of quiet between each word, without commenting.
- Second period, you ask: "show me your nose," "where's your hand?" This is the longest period, play it often.
- Third period, if they talk and feel sure of themselves, touch their foot and ask, "what is this?"
- Add new words over the weeks, three at a time: elbow, knee, chin.
The parent's role
Show once, then step back. The temptation is to rattle off ten words in a row, three is enough, and they will stick. The second period, "show me," is what truly plants the word, with no pressure to say it back. If they get the third period wrong, don't correct them, simply return to the second period another day.
Safety
No risk at all. Keep the game light and respectful of your child's body: name the visible parts, and stop when they've had enough.
You remain the sole judge of what is right for your child. These activities are offered for educational and recreational purposes: they do not replace medical advice or the guidance of an early childhood professional.
Ways to adapt the activity
- Easier: just two words, far apart, nose and foot.
- Harder: finer words, wrist, ankle, eyebrow.
- Extension: naming the same parts on a doll, then on you.
Up next
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