Sorting is one of the first skills that our kids can master. It may seem like an easy skill, but sorting is so much more.

Sorting is the ability to identify similarities and differences among a set of objects and grouping them accordingly.

When your child is engaging in these types activities, they are building fundamental skills that will benefit your child when it comes to schooling and learning in the classroom.

Read about the benefits here.

Math skills

Sorting is a pre-requisite math skill that children instinctively engage with. There are many things that need to click in young children before they can engage with numbers.

These include grouping, sorting, comparing and ordering.

Doing this teaches your child to notice similarities and differences, learn to categorise, and develops early numeracy skills.

Learning to categorise and classify helps memory skills.

Children understand that things are alike and different and that they can be organised into certain groups. Children can generally sort into colours before they can identify the name of the colours.

Thinking and problem solving

Grouping objects by colour, size or shape is a developmental milestone for cognition – which is learning, thinking and problem solving.

Sorting and matching things helps develop visual perceptual skills, thinking and memory skills. These important brain skills help with attention and problem-solving.

Adding language

Sorting is also really great for encouraging language development. Describing objects and looking for similarities and differences helps develop the language to classify, sort and group things. Talking about things such as colour, size, shape or category (animal, vehicle, clothes etc) will help encourage this.

Activities you can do.

Interested to know more? Have a look at our suggested activities that your child can do at home or playgroup.

Want to know more? Have a look at our comprehensive play ideas resource on sorting for toddlers here.