Smiley Baby

Letting toddlers into your world

Filed under: baby development — Alan @ 6:41 am

Toddlers need routine and they need to know what is happening ahead of time. This can ease the transitions from one thing to the next. They also need to feel important and part of what everyone else is doing. So allowing them to help you and teaching them that their part is important will have lasting effects on their character.

Routine can be as simple as teaching them to clean up their toys prior to starting some new activity. The next activity could be having a snack, taking a nap, or playing with other toys. Don’t forget to help them the first few times and to explain simply why we clean up after ourselves.

Add some singing to the cleaning and it becomes a game itself. Match the same song to the same task, because toddlers love routine. You can time the child to have them race against the clock too, for more fun.

Remember to tell the child what the plan for the day is and to tell them often. Then they are not surprised when they must stop one thing and start the next. Tell them a few steps ahead what will happen, especially when you begin each event. For example, you could say, “We will play with toys first, then we will put the toys away and have a snack.” They will be better prepared emotionally to make the shift. If the plan is different than normal, you should tell this plan for that day often so the toddler can remember it is not the same as usual.

Toddlers like to feel a part of the family team. You can start this by teaching the toddler ways they take care of their own bodies, like brushing their teeth after breakfast and before bedtime. You can think of a small part of a household chore you are doing that the toddler can help with. It will make them feel important in the family.

What to expect from a toddler

Filed under: baby development — Alan @ 6:50 am

Generally speaking, “toddler” indicates the stage of development from the ages of 1 to 3 years old. If we examine the word, though, it comes from the term “toddle”, which means to walk unevenly. So we could say that a toddler is a child who is learning to walk.

During these years, the toddler is developing their muscular coordination as their muscles are also growing. The child is learning and trying to step continuously in a fluid manner. The first stage of being a toddler requires the child to hold onto something for support. It aid in the balance while moving and prevents falling.

A child is usually a toddler between the ages of 9 and 14 months. It differs from child to child, based on their natural ability.

The toddler stage includes important events that the parents will want to capture for future memories. One of the most important of these is the development of communication through language.

The toddler typically speaks his first words at around 12 months of age. By the age of 18 months they are normally spitting out words or even phrases, limited to certain vocab. This is when parents must begin speaking normally, skipping any more baby chatter. The parents will be helping the toddler integrate words and phrases during this phase, into their repertoire.

This is the stage where the child triggers emotional cues. It is another highly significant milestone in the developmental growth of the child. Actions, cues and tantrums will be the tools of the toddler’s emotions, quite a bit after one year old.

Psychological gains are a parallel development for the toddler. The child will try to manipulate psychologically, by crying to acquire the object of his desire or turning grumpy to gain the spotlight.

The parents must learn to control themselves during these times and show patience at first, but discipline where patience is met with persistence.