Is your 1-year-old ready for logical consequences?
If your 1-year-old throws rocks at the playground, the best thing to do is move them away and give them something soft like a ball to throw. This is known as a logical consequence—an outcome caused by a child’s behavior but determined by an adult.
At this age, logical consequences are entirely about helping your toddler regulate their emotions and their body. Moving them away from the rocks isn’t a punishment—it’s a reset. Child development experts recommend this approach over timeouts for toddlers.
How to enforce logical consequences
When your 1-year-old is doing something that requires your intervention, try to direct them toward a positive behavior. At this age, a redirection will often involve a change of scenery and an alternate but related activity. The ideal redirection gives your toddler something productive and safe to do with the feelings and behaviors they’re showing.
If you’re holding your toddler and they start pulling your hair, for example, you can say: “Ouch! That hurts me. I’m going to put you down, and we can hold hands instead.” This way, you offer them something safe to do with their hands.
If your 1-year-old is doing something destructive, like pulling papers out of your work bag, you’ll need to stop them. Build on this logical consequence by offering them something to do that’s related to the behavior you stopped: You can let them pull books off a shelf, empty out a basket of toys, or play with a pile of scratch paper or junk mail.
See inside The Play Kits
How does your toddler learn from logical consequences?
Logical consequences aren’t yet teachable moments—those will come later. When you remove your toddler from a situation because of their behavior, you’re laying the groundwork for more explicit cause-and-effect lessons when they’re older. They slowly learn that their actions have consequences, as you get in the habit of giving appropriate consequences ❤️
Keep reading
9 - 10 Months
11 - 12 Months
13 - 15 Months
16 - 18 Months
The surprising ways bathtime builds your child’s brain
When it’s just you and your child, face to face, bathtime becomes a natural opportunity to connect, play, and develop your baby’s brain. And The Bath Set includes thoughtfully designed tools for building new language, cognitive, and fine motor skills.
4-year-old
3-year-old
2-year-old
19 - 21 Months
22 - 24 Months
How to change the backsplash on The Real Life Play Kitchen
Changing the backsplash on The Real Life Play Kitchen is easy. There are six patterns to choose from with varying colors and designs. The backsplash is applied as a decal sticker.
16 - 18 Months
Introducing 3 new playthings to The Adventurer Play Kit for months 16, 17, 18+
The Adventurer Play Kit has three new playthings to keep your toddler engaged and challenged through play.