Teach Your Toddler About Facial Differences

Your toddler may be curious about birthmarks, facial deformities, and various skin colors that they take notice of when they are at daycare or another public setting. Use positivity when being questioned by your loved one about the differences that they notice about people and share some children's books with them that contain material about facial differences.

Use A Proactive Approach

If your toddler uses verbal cues and physical gestures to indicate that they notice that another person looks very different than what they are accustomed to, they are likely ready for you to sit down with them and discuss how and why a person may have physical characteristics that look vastly unique. A proactive approach involves preparing your child in advance for any encounters that they may face with someone who has a birthmark, a disfigurement, or a distinct skin color.

Show your child some children's books that contain likable characters who look vastly different from one another. While looking through the pages with your loved one, point out the physical traits that each character has. Tell your child that each person in the world is special and may not look exactly the same as someone else.

Try to explain to your toddler that how a person acts is what is the most important. If your child has any questions about a physical feature that is depicted on one of the pages, discuss the feature and answer your child's questions as honestly as possible.

Lead By Example

Young children tend to follow the mannerisms that their parents or other role models display. Always treat people equally while spending time in public. If there are any occasions in which your child points at someone because of the way that they look, take your child aside and tell them why it isn't nice to do that.

Bring up some of the characters that the two of you have discovered in the facial differences books. Bring these characters to life by inserting them into some made-up stories that you create and demonstrating how one of them may feel if another person were to treat them badly. Afterward, discuss some ways that the other character could have responded that would have not have been hurtful to the person who looks different. 

Once your toddler gets more accustomed to seeing people in public who have varying physical traits, they may not be inclined to treat these individuals any differently than they would treat someone who has similar physical traits to them.

Reach out to a book supplier to find a facial differences understanding kid's book.