Knowing your child’s development is critical to his/her future well-being and keeping track of each milestone enables parents to see how well their toddler is doing. Let us discover why it is important for parents to monitor their development closely.
Now-a-days, social influences and competitiveness come hand-in-hand with every aspect of our lives. However, it is pertinent that we should always keep in mind one major fact for our little loved one: uniqueness. No matter how many children you may have, each one is totally different and unique to one another. Therefore, parents should remember that child developmental milestones are just a general rule of thumb and they are never a precise assessment as to what age the little toddler should possess a certain trait or ability.
From the editor’s own experience, my loving parents were very supportive of me even though I was considered a late bloomer. From the early years of attending schools to the first few years of college, my report card had two familiar letters that always resided there: Cs (70%) and Ds (60). But after settling down and realizing that I had a future majoring in Hotel and Restaurant Institutional Management in college, I graduated with honors and had an average of B+ (89%). For this I would always remember a saying quoting from Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, that “to each his own, thine self be true” is quite true.
Focusing on young toddler’s development, there are five major areas which we should pay attention to. These are as follows (taken from childdevelopment.com.au/areas-of-concern/what-is-child-development/).
- Cognition: The ability to learn and problem solve.
- Social interaction and emotional regulation: interacting with others and mastering self-control.
- Speech and language: Understanding and using language, reading and communicating.
- Physical skills: fine motor (finger) skills and gross motor (whole body) skills.
- Sensory awareness: the registration of sensory information for use.
In the coming weeks, we will explore each one and how each plays an intricate role to a toddler’s development. We will also explore what we can as parents to promote and maximize their learning capacity so that they may be able to learn and grow successfully into adolescent stage. However, parent should also realize that learning should be fun, and spoon feeding their toddlers with information like robots, is never a good way to learn anything.
Lastly, never compare your child with others, as each develops in their own pace. Always be patient and encourage your toddler with love and respect. Consider the following true fact: a young boy who did not learn to speak until at the age of 3, and very much hated school. A private tutor was hired to teach this little boy and was told that “he would never amount to anything as he was too stupid”. That little boy grew and become one of the greatest minds in the history of the world. That little boy’s name was Albert Einstein.
