10 Facts

1. Babies and kids can laugh up to 300 times a day. Adults typically laugh at most, about 20 times a day.

2. A child’s brain has its most dramatic growth period from birth until the age of 5.

3. Babies and young kids, both have a hard time figuring out and separating background noises from voices speaking. So sometimes, a toddler isn’t ignoring being called, they are just dealing with the challenge of lacking response skills.

4. Children seem to develop best, when they have consistent contact with at least three, supportive and loving adult influences throughout their life. Positive family, friends, and community bonds are extremely important to a child’s success.

5. A baby’s language development can be accelerated if a parent makes an effort to respond to a baby’s vocalization more than 80% of the time.

6. Parents who speak to their babies often, typically know 300 more words than their peers, by the age of 2 years old.

7. A child’s brain may be at it’s full physical size by the time they reach kindergarten, but brain development doesn’t slow down until their 20s.

8. Children who enjoy playing a musical instrument or sing, greatly increase their math skills, attention span, and hand-eye coordination.

9. Development is a highly interactive process, and life outcomes are not determined solely by genes.

10. Stress disables learning. Cortisol, a hormone that kills off connections in the learning and memory parts of the brain, is produced during trauma. While you can’t (and shouldn’t) protect your child from all stressors, a close relationship with you and other caring adults will help her learn to cope and to feel good about herself.

Resourceful Links:

https://www.parents.com/search?q=Toddler+development+

Facts Taken From:

https://www.scholastic.com/parents/family-life/creativity-and-critical-thinking/learning-skills-for-kids/5-fast-facts-about-your-childs-brain.html

https://www.factinate.com/things/28-facts-child-development/

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/toddlers.html

10 Tips

1. Laughing with and at your children makes for a pretty fun environment, It is important to create a light and cheerful environment for your toddler. It’s important to laugh and be silly with your children. It takes more mussels to frown than it does to laugh. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 17:22 that “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.” Some ways to keep a light and cheerful environment for your little ones is by decluttering and being intentional on ways that you can make them smile. Does your child like to be tickled? Do they like silly faces? Do they like to dance? Ask yourself this question each day. How can I put a smile on my child’s face today?

2. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Did you know that after the age of 1 your child is no longer considered a baby? They become a toddler at age one and the first 8 years of their lives a crucial in their development. Here’s a link that I found to be really helpful regarding setting goals for younger children. Look it over. This link can help you with suggestions on what should take precedence regarding your toddlers learning. : https://earlychildhoodcares.uoregon.edu/forparents/preparing-for-ifsp/goals-for-younger-children/

3. Giving your child eye contact and getting on their level helps build confidence and communication in your little ones. Intentional and meaningful play also helps you to build relationship with your toddlers. Children are literal so being specific with your request, expectations and more helps them fulfill and reach set goals successfully. Being intentional about your engagement with your child is key.

4. Name and list the three or more supportive adult influences in your child’s life. Because we as parents are also human, we aren’t always good at everything. List areas you aren’t the best in. How do/can the other supportive adult influences make up in areas where you fall short? How do/can they contribute to your child’s development positively? What rituals and routines can be established with these adults and your child that are meaningful and can make your child feel special?

5. Have you ever heard someone say that they didn’t feel like they were being heard, so in turn they stopped speaking. The same can be thought for a toddler or child. Studies show that a baby that has been neglected will stop crying as a result of no one attending to their cry. This baby stops expecting for someone to come when they cry and as a result they don’t. They won’t cry when they are hungry, wet or if they are in pain because of this neglect. It is important to hold conversation with your children as often as you can. Respond to your little ones vocally. Make sure that when you can’t attend to their need or want at that moment you verbalize this. Your child needs the assurance of your voice. They need to know that someone hears them and sees them. This also builds confidence in your little ones. We have to build trust with our children, being attentive and focused helps to do this.

6. Engagement is key. Above everything that is required of me as an educator of toddlers, my management wants to see that my children are being engaged at all times. It is important to know that as an educator it is required of me to be attentive, nurturing, warm, responsive, respectful, guiding as well as be comfortable in following the lead of the children I teach. As parents, doing these things also make for great parent involvement.

7. Ways to increase your child brain development is fostering an early passion for books and create a healthy, balanced diet for them from a young age. Read to your child and encourage them by allowing them to turn pages as well as by making reading something that you do together. Food fuels the adult body and this is no different in children. Keep offering foods that are healthy for them even if they don’t show an interest. It can takes a toddlers up to 15 times of being offered a specific food to like or even try it. Stay strong. Lol

8. Music, instruments and singing are great for increasing core skills in your children. Have a favorite song with your child, make songs up together or create a band using household objects like pots and pans. It may seem silly but doing this can grow math skills and so much more in your child.

9. Your child’s good looks may come from genetics but their development won’t. Development is interactive. I recently took a training on the responsive environment. The core components of a responsive environment is respect, reflect and relate. This means that we should respect where our child is, reflect on ourselves and then assess how we can relate what the child is doing to their education and development. An example of this is let’s say your child is playing with blocks. You can begin by observing what they are doing, reflecting on what you can do and then proceed to relate by walking over, getting on their level and introducing the idea of stacking the blocks to make some sort of structure to them.

10. Ways that we can help our children in moments of fussiness is, at times allowing younger ones to self soothe. It is okay to allow our children to work through their emotions with minimal help on our end. We can reassure them verbally but allowing them to problem solve and figure things out, to an extent can help them with confidence, controlling their emotions and can help with better behavior in the long run.

I hope you enjoy this read and that this blog is a helpful resource to someone.

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