Sorting and matching things helps develop visual perceptual skills, thinking and memory skills.

Did you know?

Sorting and grouping things together is an important cognitive skill. It teaches your toddler to notice similarities and differences, learn to categorise, and develops early literacy and numeracy skills.

Add language

Use description words to talk about how things are the same and different i.e. colour, size, shape, what it is used for, made out of, or what category it belongs to e.g. animals, vehicles, tools, clothes, etc. Describing objects and looking for similarities and differences helps develop the language to classify, sort and group things.

Other development

Sorting objects, matching shapes, colours and then pictures helps build visual perception and thinking skills. Children can generally sort into colours before they can identify the name of the colours.

Learning to categorise and classify helps memory skills.

Variations

Pack away time can be turned into a sorting game using category names e.g. put away all the blocks, then all the animals, then all the dolls etc.

Helping with the laundry can be a sorting game e.g. by colour; by type of clothing i.e. putting all the socks together or all the tops together; by size; or by who they belong to. Talk about similarities and differences as you go.

Point out how things are sorted at the shops i.e. all the fruit and vegetables are together, all the meat is together, all the breakfast food is together etc.

Across the ages

All the activities listed on our “Play Ideas” page can be applied across different age groups. Check out sorting games for babies, children and playgroups.

 

Activities listed under “toddler” are suitable for children aged 1-3 years. Toddlers enjoy activities that include exploring their environment and finding out how things work.

Play ideas