Matching socks, sorting clothes into drawers, and putting utensils away in the correct slot are all tasks you probably do each day without much thought. For your child, learning to sort and match objects is a cognitive breakthrough with major impact: These seemingly simple activities form the foundation for your child’s understanding of more complex math concepts, including counting, addition, subtraction, and patterns.  

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In this article:

• When will my toddler learn to match and sort?
• Why are sorting and matching important skills?
• How do sorting and matching skills develop?
• Color recognition and matching colors
• Matching objects
• Matching shapes
• Sorting
• Developmental concerns with matching and sorting

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When will my toddler learn to match and sort?

Around 15 months, your toddler will likely be able to match identical objects, easily picking out an apple from the bowl to match an apple on the table. Between 19 and 24 months, they may learn how to sort into small groups—making piles of three to five apples and three to five pears, for example.

By around 26 months, your toddler may be able to match a round fruit to a round plate, as they learn to match by shape. And a little later, around 29 months, they may be able to match a yellow fruit to a yellow plate, or a red fruit to a red plate, as they learn to match by color. 

Around 36 months, they may match three to five objects of the same color, which would allow them to sort and match all of the yellow fruits—bananas, lemons, golden apples—from a bowl.

Why are sorting and matching important skills?

Sorting and matching are precursors to many math skills, including pattern recognition, counting by groups, and number operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The ability to sort and match items will help your child later in math class as well as in daily life—finding a matching shoe in the closet or sorting all the blue crayons together.

To be able to sort and match objects, your child must first understand the concept of attributes. Attributes are characteristics of objects, like their shape, size, or color. Understanding that different objects have different attributes allows your child to sort and match them together. As they grow, your child will learn to sort objects based on various attributes. At first, they’ll sort by obvious attributes, like color or size. Later, they’ll learn to sort items based on how they’re used—all the play vehicles together, all the beach toys together. 

The concept of attributes helps us make sense of a lot of things in our world—items at the grocery store are typically grouped together by similar attributes, just as children in school are often grouped together by the attribute of age. Your child’s ability to sort by attributes will become more advanced as they gain experience with more complex attributes, like dirty and clean, heavy and light, metal and plastic.

How do sorting and matching skills develop?

At first, your child may be able to match two items that are the same on most attributes—for example, identical toy cars. As your child’s matching skill progresses, they’ll learn to match based on one core attribute, like shape or color. Later, they’ll learn to match real-life objects to their pictures, like putting a dog figure next to a picture of a dog in the Montessori Animal Match game.

Eventually, your child’s matching skills develop into sorting. Sorting happens when your child is able to group together more than two objects based on a common attribute like color or shape—for example, putting red socks, shirts, and pants in one pile, and yellow clothes in another. With practice, your child will be able to sort into larger groups, more categories, and by increasingly abstract attributes. Here’s a more detailed look at how your child’s sorting and matching skills develop, starting around 15 months of age.

Color recognition and matching by color

One day in the seemingly distant future, your child may use their color matching skills to find their teammates on the field in a soccer game or to complete a jigsaw puzzle. In the meantime, the skill of matching by color is surprisingly complex and takes several steps to develop.

To understand color, your child must first understand that a word like “purple” isn’t describing the object itself but an attribute of the object—this can be challenging at first. Around 12 months of age, your toddler may begin to understand color and be able to recognize it. They can’t yet identify different colors or say their names, but children of this age begin to show a preference for one color over another.

You can help your toddler learn to identify colors by pointing them out and labeling them in daily life. As you walk around the neighborhood, notice, “That car is white,” or “That house is yellow.” As you play, point out colored items of a similar shape and size—let your child explore and handle the rings from the Flexible Wooden Stacker, saying, “That ring is red” or “This ring is blue.”

RELATED: A better way to help your toddler learn colors

Many children’s books offer opportunities to point out and label colors while reading. Books that feature realistic photos and images, like the Colorful Foods Board Book, can be a fun way to practice color recognition.

Tip: The way you describe an object’s color makes a difference. Research has shown that naming the object before naming its color may help toddlers learn color names. Instead of saying, “That’s a green apple,” try “This apple is green.” It’s a simple change that may help your toddler with color recognition.

Matching colors (around 24 to 36 months)

Your child may begin to develop the skill of matching by color shortly after their second birthday. Although they may have known the words for colors for a while, it’s common for young children to mix up colors and their words, calling a red block “blue” or a green cup “purple.” As they gain more experience, you may notice them becoming better at using color words. They may spontaneously shout “Blue!” when drinking out of their blue cup or be able to hand you the red ball when you ask for it. 

Lovevery child development expert Rachel Coley shares an activity for encouraging your toddler to match by color in this video from The Lovevery App:

These skills reflect a better understanding of color as a property that all objects have, which unlocks the ability to match by color, even with objects that differ in size or shape. They may now be able to match a red cup to a red plate or put the blue hat on a doll wearing a blue dress. You can encourage color matching through play—for example, your child can practice putting matching green or yellow button “hats” from the Mosaic Button Board on green or yellow dowel “people” from the Wooden Posting Stand.

RELATED: Obsessed with color matching? Try these activities

Challenge your toddler to match the Felt Stars to their corresponding colors on the Chunky Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle pieces. You can model a correct color match first, and then invite them to try with just two different-colored puzzle pieces and a star that matches one of them. Next, lay out all the pieces and hand your child each star to pair with the color-coordinating piece.

Matching objects (starting around 15 months)

Matching is a skill that taps a variety of cognitive abilities, like visual memory, short-term memory, and pattern recognition. As with many skills, your child’s ability to match objects develops on a progression:

Basic object matching (around 15 months)

Around 15 months of age, your child may be able to match items that are the same in most ways. For example, if you combine two large balls and two small balls together in a pile, they may be able to match the two smaller balls and the two larger ones. This simple form of matching involves your child finding each object’s partner.

Matching an object to its picture (around 19 months)

Beginning around 19 months, your child may be able to match an object to its real-life counterpart. This shows a substantial cognitive leap on their part: They’re beginning to understand that pictures represent real objects. For example, if your child sees a picture of their favorite cereal on its box, they may match the piece of cereal to the picture.

Matching identical pictures (around 24 to 28 months)

Not long after your child’s second birthday, they may learn how to match identical pictures—an important visual discrimination skill. Encourage them to match pictures with pairs of identical cards, like the Things That Move Memory Game. With practice, they may be able to match pictures from memory, which means they’ll soon be able to play memory matching games.

Matching similar pictures of objects (around 24 to 36 months)

As your child progresses in their matching skills, they may learn how to match pictures of similar objects. Whereas earlier your child was matching identical pictures, now they may find matches of pictures that are similar but not identical. For example, they may match two cards with pictures of dogs on them even though the dogs are different breeds. They’re able to see that while there are differences, both pictures are dogs.

Activities and games to help boost matching skills

Find the ball that matches: Arrange a few balls of different sizes on a table or floor. Try playing a simple matching game by handing your child a small ball and asking them to find the other small ball.

Match the puzzle pieces: Basic image-matching puzzles can help your child practice matching objects. The Community Garden Puzzle has simple shapes of garden items that your child can match. Younger toddlers may still need a little help from you to arrange each piece in its matching slot.

Matching an object to its picture: Point out real-life objects that match pictures in the “Things I See” Texture Cards or your toddler’s favorite books. Show how the picture of the ball, animal, or shoe in the book looks like real-life objects of the same type.

Matching the animal to its picture: Use the Montessori Animal Match game to help reinforce the concept of matching 3D objects to 2D pictures. Make it a bit more challenging by placing the incorrect animals on each of the picture cards and encourage your child to “fix” the animals by placing them on the correct cards.

Matching identical pictures: You can encourage your child’s ability to look closely and visually differentiate pictures with a simple game. Try handing them animals from the Quilted Critter Pockets one by one, right side up, and ask them to put each animal in its matching pocket. Once they’ve mastered this skill, try giving them the animals upside down or flipped over to add an additional step of rotating or flipping before making a match.

Matching similar pictures of objects: Support your child in matching similar objects with a picture scavenger hunt. Show them a picture of an object, plaything, or item you have around the house—the ‘Things I See’ Texture Cards are great for this purpose—and encourage them to find the thing that matches what’s in the picture. They may demonstrate that they understand their toy truck matches the picture of the truck, even if the trucks are not identical.

Matching shapes (starting around 24 months)

Between 24 to 30 months of age, most children can match basic geometric shapes—circles, squares, or equilateral triangles—in the same size and orientation. This is purely a perceptual matching task, similar to color matching. 

The next stage is to be able to match basic shapes regardless of their size or orientation. For example, they can still match a square to a square even if one is a smaller square and rotated to look like a diamond. At this stage, they don’t necessarily know what the shape is called or what the “rules” are around what makes a square a square, but they can match the shapes visually based on similarity. 

Once they have a grasp on basic shape matching, around age 3, children generally learn to recognize and name basic shapes, saying “Triangle!” when they see a sandwich cut into triangles. Often children at this stage recognize and name very typical shapes—like a triangle where all the sides are the same length, or a fat rectangle. It’s helpful to point out shapes that your child sees in daily life. You can show them the round crackers, the square blocks, or the triangle sign while riding in the car.

Activities and games that teach how to match shapes  

The Geo Shapes Puzzle is great practice for matching shapes of the same and different sizes. Similarly, the Friends of All Shapes puzzle offers your child a simple way to begin matching shapes in a puzzle. If your toddler is familiar with the puzzle, take out all the pieces and let them problem-solve to find where each one fits. If they need a little help, try taking out only a few at a time.

Another idea to help reinforce shape matching is to use baking with shapes. Make round and rectangular cookies with cookie cutters, then help your child place the rectangular cookies on a rectangular cookie sheet and round cookies on a circular pizza pan.

Sorting (starting around 19 to 24 months)

Learning to sort objects in various ways helps your child develop the cognitive skills to be able to recognize and create patterns, think logically, and put things in order or sequence. It also supports children in participating in daily tasks, like clean-up time. 

The developmental progression of sorting often follows a particular order: first sorting by shape, then sorting by size, by color, by function, and finally by category. But since every child’s development is unique, some of these skills may develop in a different order based on your child’s experience. 

Sorting is an activity that is made up of smaller matching tasks. Often when children are sorting, they look at a pile of objects and decide how to group or match them based on a specific feature. Exposure to activities that promote sorting and matching may support your toddler in moving through the various stages of sorting more quickly.

RELATED: When will my toddler learn to sort?

Sorting shapes (around 36 months)

As your child approaches their third birthday, they’re gaining a stronger understanding of shapes. They may have mastered the basic shapes—circle, square, triangle—well enough to begin sorting using these shapes. Your child may be able to sort cards or blocks into piles based on these shapes.

Sorting by color (3 to 4 years old)

It often takes children until 3 to 4 years old to really label and identify colors correctly. Around this age, your child may be able to sort by colors in a consistent way. It’s often easier for children to sort objects that are identical except for color, like the Felt Stars. As your child progresses in learning to sort, you can offer them different types of objects and encourage them to sort them by color—for example, an assortment of balls, cars, and pegs.

Activities that teach children sorting by shape and color

Clean-up time: Cleaning up is a great opportunity to practice sorting: “We put all the balls in this basket—can you go pick up a ball and put it in the basket?” or “Can you put your shirts in this pile and your pants in this one?”

Sensory bin sorting: Combine fine motor work and color matching with a sensory bin scoop-and-sort game. Add water and small floating objects in an assortment of colors—like plastic blocks, foam shapes, or flowers—to a large, shallow bin. Give your child a slotted spoon and cups that are color coordinated with the items in the bin, then show them how to use the spoon to scoop items from the bin into the corresponding cup. Remember always to supervise your child around water.

Sorting nature walk: Sorting doesn’t have to be confined to indoors. Encourage your child to sort items they find outdoors. Go on a nature walk and encourage your child to collect “treasures” like rocks, leaves, pine cones or flowers. When you go home, encourage them to sort their nature items by type, shape, or color.

Pom pom sorting: Gather together some multicolored craft pom-poms, the Transfer Tweezers, and an egg carton. With marker or paint, draw colors in the carton that match the pom-poms and show your child how to start sorting the pom-poms by color. They can also sort them by size. Reminder: Pick up all the pieces when finished and don’t leave children unattended with small pieces.

Color wheel sorting: Gather objects from around your house in all the colors of the rainbow. Place one item of each in color in a circular pattern on the floor. Ask your child to then group the rest of the items by color, creating a beautiful rainbow pattern. The end result is aesthetically pleasing and the work along the way provides meaningful color learning experiences for your child.   

Sorting across types: Use the Reach for the Stars Matching Cards to help your child practice sorting by different attributes. First, encourage your child to sort them by color, then switch to sorting by shape. This switching between sorting by different attributes helps your child build their executive functioning skills. You can also challenge your child to sort the circle and square cards into containers of different shapes (like a round bowl and a square baking pan). This poses an extra challenge because the containers are three-dimensional while the cards are two-dimensional.

Developmental concerns with sorting & matching

The ability to match and sort objects is just one aspect of your child’s developing cognitive skills. Development of these skills illustrates your child’s growing understanding of numbers, colors, shapes, and how pictures can represent real-life objects. Each child’s developmental trajectory is unique, but most children show initial signs of matching and sorting objects by around 19 to 24 months of age. 

Matching and sorting skills build on each other in a progression—sorting toys into the right buckets at cleanup time is a skill that comes after matching by color, for example. So start with activities that support where your child is—like matching the green hat to the green figure—and work your way up to sorting at your child’s own pace.

If you have concerns about your child’s development, contact your pediatrician. They can answer your questions and determine if your child needs further evaluation.