Support your child’s learning (the first three years)
During your child’s first two years, your toddler will grow from an infant to a child. He will gain control over his growing body that he can walk, run, jump, climb, and manipulate without having to pay extra attention for his brain and muscles to work together. He will learn to use language to ask, communicate, seek help, demand and learn. His learning style will become more and more evident. His personality will shine through, reflecting not only his heritage and inner temperament, but also his upbringing and environment. At three years old, it will be apparent how competent she will be later on.
Therefore, the child’s family environment and the relationship with his parents are particularly crucial during the first three years. However, studies have estimated that approximately 10 percent of families provide their young children with optimal learning and parenting during this life stage. This is mainly because they are too busy with other demands in their fast-paced lives and partly because their knowledge of their toddler’s needs is limited.
Once your child has figured out how to stand up and take a few wobbly steps while holding on to a low table or chair and eventually walk without support, you’ll begin to gain a new perspective on the old and familiar. territory and his intense interest in exploring will increase. His curiosity will become insatiable. He can climb, push, pull, pick up objects and move with amazing speed. His attention span may be short, but his energy will seem to triple that of the adults caring for him. Not to mention, his ability to get involved in everything will wear his parents out long before he’s ready to stop and take a nap.
In the first few months after a toddler learns to walk, his new ability to move, combined with his innate curiosity, will result in a great deal of stress and work for anyone who cares for him. How you as a parent respond to this will determine whether he will be highly competent or incompetent by the time he is three years old and eventually as a first grader.
Parents raising less competent children use playpens or gates as a way to restrict their children’s freedom to explore and move much more often than those whose children are rated highly competent. The most effective parents organize their homes so that their young children are protected from household dangers and have free access to roam and explore.
Another important factor in a young child’s development is the type and amount of language given to him by his parents and the rest of his family. Often the words come in direct response to answer a short question, but because the language relates directly to what the child is doing, such speech is a powerful teaching device.