Tag: Development

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Development

Tips on How to Encourage Your Toddler to Talk

Every parent eagerly waits for their child to talk. It’s a whole new world when your toddler starts talking and you would be at cloud nine! Remember that all children are different and develop at their own pace. Here are some ways to encourage your toddler to get these words flowing. 

Keep talking about everything

Talk a lot with your toddler. Exposure to the outer world is important to improve your child’s vocabulary. Speak slowly and smoothly using small simple words and very short sentences.

Keep narrating to your little one what you are doing, where you are going and all that you are up to. In your conversations, keep enough pauses in between, to listen to your child and wait for him to respond. 

Become your child’s echo

Repeat what your child spoke by adding on one or two words at a time. This will encourage toddlers to further develop their expressive speech. They will feel motivated.

Reward words

Be generous and appreciate when your baby talks. He will be happy getting applauded for his effort and will try speaking more. Also, share some additional words related to what he/she just spoke. 

Don’t anticipate

Make your little one work hard for what he wants. Wait until he or she asks, rather than anticipating their every need and request.

Be blind to gestures

Delay your response to your toddler’s gestures and help your little one work on his/her words. If you fulfil their needs with gestures, your child might be reluctant to work on his or her speech. 

When you respond to any request, ensure that you use the word repeatedly and make him understand that you are trying to emphasize a particular word.

Limit screen time

Only active interaction can help your child talk. When they are hooked up in front of a TV, this cannot happen. Researches have proved that with an increase in screen time, language acquisition gets delayed for children below three years of age. 

It is recommended that children over two years should not be allowed to watch television for more than 2 hours. Children below 2 years of age should be completely discouraged from watching TV.

Listen

Listening is equally as important as speaking. We always seek the person who listens to us when we want to tell something. The same holds with children. So when you give your child your attention when he is talking or making sounds, help him/her to understand that they are really important and worth your time. Sustain their interest in talking by paying attention and encourage them with supporting words.

Point and repeat

Point to things in your everyday life and repeat them until your child gets attentive. The more your child hears a particular word, the more they are going to comprehend it; so keep repeating. You’ll soon hear your baby repeating it! 

Remember these sets of words or phrases must include the words of items that the child is attending to, visually at that particular time and then label it for them. Some such words include: during bath time- water, bubbles, soap, bucket; during meal time- spoon, fork, plate, eggs, apple, banana, yummy.

Be animated 

Use lots of facial expressions and variations of tones when you talk with your toddler. This will help you create interest around the act of talking and you can retain your baby’s attention for longer periods. Use changes in volume, sing, recite and be narrative all the time. All this gives your baby even more opportunities to learn.

Give your toddler plenty of opportunities to talk during your everyday routine. Keep encouraging them by engaging in fun-filled activities. The more the better; they will get familiarized with words and our little ones will start playing with words!

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Development Fun Health

Developmental Advantages Connected to Early Swimming

Children who learn to swim by the age of five are found to be comparatively smarter than their counterparts. These children gain significant developmental advantages while learning to swim. An extensive study revealed that children who learned swimming early experienced more rapid physical and cognitive skill development than other kids.

Physical and visual Motor skills

Swimming gives developmental advantages in balancing the child’s body and its self-propelled movements. Children who learn swimming before the age of five are more adaptable with many other physical tasks. Early swimmers are also able to grasp objects more easily when compared to others. As they start practising earlier, their brains are also sharper than other kids of their age.

Cognitive skills

Children possessing swimming skills are always at par with others in all activities. They have more proficiency in solving arithmetic problems, identifying numbers and even counting. As they start getting trained very early, they are very good at understanding and following instructions. They have a good hold over language, both oral and in writing and identify the shapes correctly in illustrations. These children acquire good memory skills. They have an edge over others in recalling stories, reciting rhymes and whatever things they learn.

Builds muscles

Swim time helps improve a child’s muscle development at a very young age. Children need to develop muscles required to hold their heads up, move their arms and legs accordingly, and work in coordination with their entire body. Swimming is an exercise that provides benefits both internally and externally. It helps strengthen the lungs, heart, brain and blood vessels.

Improves sleeping patterns

For babies, pool time takes a lot of energy. They need to work extra hard to use their bodies in new ways for coordination. This drains the baby of all his energy and he requires more time to sleep after swimming.

Improves appetite

The extra energy given for swimming burns a lot of calories. This leaves your baby hungry and you notice that a baby’s appetite increases after swimming. This is because of the physical exertion and energy they use underwater to stay warm.

Weight management

Swimming is an effective aerobic exercise which keeps the child’s body moving all the time. This avoids childhood obesity and weight is kept under control.

Improves intelligence

Early swimming has a positive effect on the brain. The children have a higher level of Intelligence as they have been following instructions from a very early age. We also have greater cognitive development.

Stress buster

Swimming helps release stress and frustration in mind. When it comes to children, swimming offers them a perfect time for relaxation and let go of their daily pressures. This, in turn, results in a happier and healthier state of mind, free from all tensions. Being away from academics, such activities are necessary for your child to have some time on his own for his physical fitness and outfit.

Babies and toddlers who participate in swimming use more muscles than young children. Water-resistance helps them build muscle strength. They induce early stimulation of brain development. Specific instructions that need to be followed by early swimmers make them obedient at a much younger age. Completing the complex movements in water keeps the body fit and muscles strong. You must encourage your child to learn swimming as early as possible for his overall mental and physical development.

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Development Health Special Child

All You Want to Know About Toddler’s Developmental Delay

When toddlers are slower to develop communication, emotional, physical, and social skills than expected, it is called developmental delay. Developmental delay can turn up in the way children shift, behave, think, communicate and learn with others. When more than one of these areas is affected, it may be called a global developmental delay.

Developmental delay may be short term, or it may be the first sign of a long-term issue.

Lasting developmental delays are also known as developmental disabilities. Instances are intellectual disability, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, and cerebral palsy.

Signs that indicate that your toddler’s development has been delayed

Every toddler develops differently but as a general guide, you might be worried about the developmental delay if you notice that, over several months, your child is not developing language, social or motor skills at the same rate as other kids of the same age.

Things to do for delayed development in your toddler

As a parent, you know your toddler better than anyone else. If you are worried about your child’s development, rely on your instincts and talk to your paediatrician, and nurse.

These health professionals can make a diagnosis of developmental delay after evaluating your child. Or they can refer you to other professionals who can assist.

People who can assist a toddler with developmental delay

Your paediatrician and nurse can assist if you think your kid might have developmental delay, or your kid has a developmental delay diagnosis. The below-mentioned experts can also assist:

  • Audiologist
  • Occupational therapist
  • Physiotherapist
  • Speech pathologist
  • Psychologist
  • Special education teacher
  • Social worker
Living with developmental delay

Like other toddlers, kids with developmental delays keep learning. But they take longer to develop new skills, and they may learn in somewhat different ways from other kids. For instance, most kids can learn skills fast and by instance. But kids with developmental delay may need to be shown skills in simpler, smaller steps. They may also require more time and chances to practise skills.

At preschool or school, your kid may need additional support to do well. It is always a good idea to talk with preschools and schools about your child’s requirements. And if your child has a disability diagnosis, you may be able to get school support.

Do not worry about delayed development

Keep in mind that children develop at different rates. But, if you think your child is developmentally delayed, consult with your doctor. If your school-age child is diagnosed with developmental delay, you may be entitled to special services. Specialized services differ as per the need and location.

Consult with your physician and your school district to discover what services are present. Specialized education, particularly when started early, can assist your child’s progress and achieve more in school.

Treatments for developmental delays differ as per the specific delay. Some treatments comprise physical therapy for assistance in motor skill delay and behavioural and educational therapy for help with ASD and other delays.

In a few cases, medications may be recommended. A diagnosis and an evaluation from a paediatrician are vital to come up with a treatment plan particularly designed for your kid.

Categories
Development Parenting and Childcare

Introducing your Child to the World of Writing

Writing is a skill. Parents are always looking for ways to help their kids learn to write. Though it takes time and patience to master the art of writing, it is never a difficult task to accomplish. Some children have it in their blood and for a few others need these skills to be incorporated in their daily routine.

There are a lot of methods starting from daily reading and writing sessions to fun-filled activities to improve a child’s writing skills. These will help a child build on his or her skills in no time. 

Create an alphabet book

This can be a fun way of getting your child’s alphabet learning started. Alphabet books can be created with one alphabet on a page along with the picture of an item starting with that letter for a child’s visual aid. Children will love drawing items and gradually become familiar with alphabets and letters.

Make children write their books

Encourage children to write their storybooks and get them compiled in the form of a book. Once completed, help them correct it and add them to your bookshelf. Finding a book written by them in the book-shelf will create in them a sense of pride.

Create writing worksheets

For small children just beginning to write, try creating a worksheet where they can trace out letters and words. You can also create a connect-the-dots game by engaging your child tracing along the dotted line and finally finding out the letter which comes up. 

Encourage reading

Regular reading helps expand a child’s vocabulary and shows them different ways of using a particular word. This would make it easier for them to use these words on their piece while writing. 

Encourage your child’s love for reading as they grow. This can be accomplished in smaller children by ensuring that you too read along with them daily. Start Reading early. Those children who devour books, grow up to become strong writers themselves.

Write to faraway friend and relatives

Writing to friends and relatives who they don’t get to see very often would increase your child’s love for writing. They will be enthusiastic to tell about what they have been up to and would love it, even more, when they get a response back.

Creativity can also be encouraged by assigning writing tasks like making pen pals or writing a letter to each other at home and hiding them around the house to find.

Encourage journaling

Creating a journal would be a great milestone in improving your child’s writing skills. This is a great way to express your thoughts and ideas on a particular topic. Encourage your child to write in as much as possible and make it a part of his or her daily routine. 

Create a writing space

Dedicate an area of your home solely for writing purposes. Space should be completely devoted to writing. This will help your child to stay away from all distractions and he can focus on practicing writing skills regularly. 

Connect your child’s interest

Think about your kid’s favorite book series or a comic character or whatever your child is fascinated about. Connect his or her area of interest to writing. If your child is interested in dinosaurs, encourage him to write a series on them, or to describe their features in an article. 

Create story prompts

Suppose your child is obsessed with Pokemon. Encourage your child to write a new short story about Pokemon or ask him to create an entire series of Pokemon. This will add on to his creative writing skills and imagination, prompting him to write more and more. 

Make apt use of Technology 

Use technology to your advantage by promoting your child to create a blog. Engaging in such online updates would help improve their writing skills by encouraging frequent writing habits and creative skills. 

Invest your time

Make yourself available to help your child in proofreading and spellings whenever your child requires it. This will make him confident in what he/she is writing to help him improve more.

Praise your child’s work

Appreciate your child when they show interest in writing any piece. This appreciation will be an inspiration for him to write more and develop their skills. 

As parents, encourage them to write at schools, participate in competitions and try bringing out the best in them by your constant guidance and support. Give these techniques a try and along with some fun, you can see your children sparkling with pens.

Categories
Development Parenting and Childcare

Effective Techniques to Improve your Child’s Skills

The first and most important teacher in your child’s life is you! Your baby is gathering new information and developing new skills every day. Teaching various skills at the early child development stage is the most appropriate way of managing their behaviour. Instruction is the common way in which all of us try to teach our kids different skills. But the more effective and pleasant way of teaching children skills by example.

Teaching Children Skills Through Instruction And Example

Telling your child how to do things is the first method we use to develop children’s skills. But this method can sometimes ignite toddler temper tantrums which can turn into rebellion as the child grows. But if you combine examples along with instruction, then you are bound to get a more positive response from your kid.

To make your child follow the instructions, always:

  • Kneel and speak to the child as an equal
  • Speak in simple sentences that your toddler will understand easily
  • Use a calm and pleasant tone of voice
  • Alternate between instructions and requests to get the desired result
  • Avoid using your smartphone while teaching your child skills
  • Make sure a distraction like TV is shut off
  • Use hand or facial gestures to emphasize important aspects of the instruction
  • Use props like drawings, posters, pictures, photos, educational toys, etc. to teach skills.
Set an example
  • Demonstrate a new skill by showing how to do it
  • Ensure your child is watching carefully while you do it
  • Teach your child social skills by following a certain pattern of social behaviour
  • Lay emphasis on some important aspects of a particular task
  • Give your child ample practice
  • Indulge in role-playing games where these skills can be included.
  • For instance, you can play the game “party-party”. While playing, you can demonstrate and teach skills like greeting the guests, laying the table, serving the food, etc.
Teach Skills At The Child’s Pace

You cannot expect your toddler to learn everything at the first attempt. Overloading your kid with instructions will only confuse the child. This can result in frustration and potential toddler temper tantrums. Understand the speed at which your child can assimilate information and teach your child skills at that pace.

Teaching children skills one step at a time is a pleasant way of going about it. This way, you will not overestimate your kid’s abilities. For example, if you are teaching your toddler to wear his footwear, on the first day just teach how to wear socks. The next day, teach your kid to slide the feet into the shoes. Once your toddler has learned to wear the correct shoe on the correct foot, you can teach the skill of fastening the strap or tying the laces. Splitting the task of wearing socks and shoes into three distinct steps is an easy way to teach a child skills.

To sum up, the most effective habit of parents in improving a child’s skills is doing things at the child’s pace. You should neither overestimate nor underestimate your toddler’s capacity to learn new skills

Categories
Development Health

Tips on How to Encourage Your Toddler’s Physical Development

Toddlers develop and grow fast in their first five years across the four primary areas of development. These areas are motor (physical), cognitive, communication and language, and emotional and social.  
Motor development indicates the strengthening and growth of a child’s ability, muscles, and bones to move and touch the surroundings. A kid’s motor development is classified into two categories: gross motor and fine motor.

Fine motor skills refer to small movements in the tongue, wrists, lips, feet, fingers, toes, and hands. Gross motor skills entail the development of muscles that allow babies to hold up their heads, crawl and sit, and eventually skip, walk, jump, and run.

Here are some of the ways to encourage your toddler’s physical development:

Climbing and balancing

One of the things toddlers love to do is take their new walking skills and up the stake just a bit. It might be climbing up and down a sofa or chair or balancing on the edge of a stair.

Drawing and scribbling

Applaud these early sketches, which offer assurance a whole raft of new capabilities. Drawing with a crayon includes fine motor skills such as holding and grasping.

Dressing and undressing

Placing things on and taking them off is a toddler delight. Undressing and dressing herself or a toy offers a host of prospects for her to practice her hand and finger coordination.

Filling and emptying

Your toddler will soon learn that vacating a container necessitates a lot less accurate than filling one. As infuriating as it might appear this dumping is an essential cognitive exercise, as well. Your toddler is beginning to understand that one object, like a bucket, can hold another object.

Running and jumping

Toddlers love to run, jump and climb but getting both feet to leave the ground at once, is difficult than most of us remember and exasperating for the child who wants to, but cannot.

Moulding and squishing

Toddlers love to touch, taste, and smell. If you offer your child lots of fun-to-feel materials to keep her little hands busy, she will have fun while developing the agility and strength of those little hands.

Stacking, stringing, and sorting

Balancing one block on top of another carefully or placing coloured rings on a pole or stacking and knocking down everything excites almost all toddlers. It is also an incredible way for your kid to use his fingers and to work on building and sorting skills.

Catching and throwing

Balls of several sizes to be rolled, caught or thrown develop hand-eye coordination as well as agility. This skill is a physical development: your child will begin with rolling, then go on to bouncing a ball and throwing underhanded before lastly learning to throw overhand.

Rolling and pedalling

After your toddler studies that his legs are vital to mobility, he will love using them to roam. Your child might start by utilising both feet at the same time and then start “walking” with feet.

Pushing and pulling

If he is still learning to pull, push and walk toys are ideal for your kid. They mix the skills that are developed already, such as pulling into a standing position and pushing up from the floor.

Swimming and splashing

Water play is an ideal way to construct coordination and assist your kid get at ease with his body, but it is essential to take your cues from your child when introducing him to the water.

These are some of the simple ways to encourage your toddlers’ physical development.

Categories
Fun Parenting and Childcare

Tips on How to Design Kids’ Rooms to Foster Creativity

Although most people believe that creativity is a natural talent and that their children either do or do not have: just as all kids are not evenly intelligent, all kids are not creative as well. But in reality, creativity is a skill rather than innate aptitude, and it is a skill that parents can assist their kids to develop.

Every child is born with the ability for imagination and creativity, but that capacity can be limited if, for instance, you do not give them the opportunity and space to use and develop their creative energy. That chiefly means offering your child the liberty to make something creative on their own. But, it is also about being able to test new ideas.

How to foster the creative process?

It is essential to emphasise the creative process. That means showing your appreciation and support for their efforts, not the result. You should offer the stimulation for creativity but do not attempt to control the play. Rather, it enables kids to develop their sense of liberty.

The tools you offer for this creative play should thus not be limited, but leave room for their thoughts to begin. You can change equipment often to keep it thrilling and provide the prospective for them to come up with new ideas, but also an enhanced challenge, so they do not start to become bored with this type of play.

Why make kids room a creative hub?

When we are talking about kids’ room ideas to motivate their imagination, what we mean is that you can create a little station or hub where they have a range of activities and tools on-hand to chase an interest. By setting up a creative station in a kid’s room, you are making it easily accessible, and thus, more likely to be used. You are also providing them ownership of it.

A creative space must welcome clutter and supplies must be put on a show. This motivates your kids to feel like there are no limitations on them. Your children must not inbuilt with any fears about using the space.

Best kids room ideas to support their creative pursuits
Kids room design Ideas for Arts And Crafts

Arts and crafts are favourite for kids and maybe the first area you think of when it comes to bringing out your kid’s creative side.

Craft corner

The craft table is possibly the most renowned creative space in family homes. But, instead of putting out supplies that seem to surpass your kitchen bench or dining table always, you can set up a chosen space in your child’s room and design it nicely.

Chalkboard

Chalkboard paint indicates you can turn the whole wall into a drawing space. On the other hand, you can paint an extensive stripe across the room or even in a corner if you like a more concentrated area for your kid to get creative.

Gallery wall

A gallery wall in the room is the most excellent way of displaying your kids’ latest artistic creations. This way, it also enhances as beautification for your kids’ room that can easily develop as they grow. You can simply utilise frames to exhibit the artwork or twine up a line with some hooks attached to make it simple to convert the art.

Reading corner

Reading can be entertaining for your kids with a cosy spot to enjoy their books. Your kid will love to have a tent at the corner with soft cushions and favourite stuffed animals.

These creative interior designing ideas can motivate and assist offer your kids the room of their wildest dreams.

Categories
Behaviour and Discipline

How to Promote Positive Behaviour in Your Toddler

The first few years of a child are vital for teaching positive behaviour. Daycare personnel and teachers play a major role, but the duty of promoting positive behaviour in toddlers is on the parents. To teach your child to be a caring, understanding and helpful individual, a constructive teaching approach will prove to be more effective than a punitive one. Your child needs to grow into an adult who is filled with these qualities and is positive towards life.

To Promote Positive Behaviour, Lead By Example

Children learn more by observation than by instruction. They tend to emulate their parents’ behaviour and attitude. If you, as a parent have a positive view of life, the child will naturally develop a similar attitude. Some of the steps you can take towards this goal are:

Politeness – Being polite can do a lot of good to your toddler. The child will imitate your behaviour and learn to be polite and respectful towards you as well as others. Speaking gently and using words like “please” and “thank you” will inculcate polite behaviour in your child’s responses too.

Praising – You could praise your toddlers for doing something good. This is the easiest method of building a positive attitude in a preschooler. But, simple compliments for a little bit of good work will boost their self-confidence and self-esteem.

Listening–When your kid is speaking, listen attentively and respond positively. This way, your child will also develop the habit of listening when you speak. Attentiveness also possesses the power of preventing toddler tantrums.

Sharing–Another easy way of encouraging positive behaviour in a toddler is by sharing time, space, and possessions. If your kids have access to the entire house rather than few designated play areas, then you must remove items that are unsafe for toddlers and keep them out of reach.

Teaching Positivity In Negative Situations

Being teased by an elder sibling, having to share a favourite toy, losing a race to the dinner table, rough-and-tumble behaviour of older siblings, tripping and getting hurt, etc. are few of the very common examples of negative situations around your toddler.

They might look simple on the outside, but they could prove to be one of the most stressful situations when it comes to your toddler. Promoting positive behaviour in early childhood is a good way to help your pre-schooler to deal with negativity.

If you jump to your child’s defense every time there is trouble, it might weaken your child and make him or her incapable of solving their own problems. This will have a long term effect and will be carried forward into adulthood. Letting your kids solve their problems will strengthen their resolve and teach them to cope with stress. As long as safety is not compromised, you kids should have the freedom to manage their relationships independently. It helps them grow into emotionally stronger adults.

Toddlers learn more by observation. Your toddler can learn the right values automatically as long as they live in a friendly and positive environment. Lowering the number of instructions and negative feedback, you can create an aura of positive thinking and good behaviour within the household. All of these ways can promote positive behaviour in a pre-schooler.