Intellectual Development means being able to communicate, to think both creatively and abstractly, to pay attention, solve problems, and develop keen judgment and a lifelong readiness to learn.

Comfort Through the comfort and responsiveness of an adult, preschoolers will learn how to handle their emotions and how to seek help when needed. Parents Can: Tell their preschooler long stories without pictures Child Will: Enjoy special shared time of listening to stories Strengthen his listening and comprehension skills Parents Can: Encourage their preschooler to talk about things she finds interesting. Ask open-ended questions, such as "How come ..." or "Why do you think..." Child Will: Practice reasoning skills as she thinks about cause and effect relationships Reinforce knowledge she has, to provide details and information Parents Can: Ask their preschooler to predict what might happen next in a story Child Will: Think about how events may be sequenced Use his imagination to create new actions in a story

Play Through opportunities for play, preschoolers will experience joyful, free, spontaneous moments of fun while learning about themselves and others. Parents Can: Play guessing games, such as "I Spy with my Little Eyes" Child Will: Practice her observation skills Reinforce labels for such concepts as colour, shape and size Parents Can: Play silly games, such as using the wrong word in the right place. For example, "I'm going to the store to buy a giraffe, and then to the zoo to see a watermelon." Child Will: Enjoy the humour of gross contradictions Enjoy correcting you using appropriate vocabulary Parents Can: Encourage their preschooler to make up a story to accompany a picture For their older preschooler, the story can be written verbatim under the picture Child Will: Make the connection between oral and written language Practice language skills to compose stories

Teach Through routines and emotionally and physically safe and secure environments, preschoolers can learn how to think, solve problems and communicate. Parents Can: Play word games that focus on initial letters. For example, "I'm Annie and I love apples." Child Will: Practice the basic reading readiness skill of identifying letter sounds Learn that letters represent a sound Parents Can: Watch a TV programme with their preschooler, and have her recall details and events Child Will: Practice oral retelling of what she remembers Practice using new words and grammatical constructions Parents Can: Point out words on signs and labels in their preschooler's daily environment, such as Stop signs, "milk" and so on Child Will: Become aware of the connection between spoken words and the print equivalent Practice reading readiness skills