Being A Father
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Child Development
Child Development

Rishaan, a 32 month old, is moving out of babyhood into childhood. He is beginning to be OK about spending time away from us, his parents. He has a rich imagination. He loves to play and be physically active. However, this means he may be scared of things too, or hesitate to try new things.

All the children who are turning into childhood from the babyhood are different and develop at different rates.

Here are some points which I strictly focus on.

Physical development:
Since our children start turning into childhood, they start enjoying physical activities to run, jump, swing, climb, dance and tricycle. Yes, they might get tired and cranky if they don’t have some quiet time between such physical plays, but they love such plays though. And this is the time that we still have to make sure that they stay safe and we always have to supervise them. They may also become less coordinated and lose their confidence for a while initially.

During this Physical Development, our children…
·;;;;;;;;;Love to splash and play with water. We always have to supervise them around water.
·;;;;;;;;;Try to walk and run along a plank because their balance is better.
·;;;;;;;;;Use pedals on a tricycle and ride it.
·;;;;;;;;;Can roll and bounce a ball, but still find it hard to catch.
·;;;;;;;;;Can throw a ball using their shoulders and elbow.

Social and emotional development:
Our children are at the very beginning of learning how to get on with others. Our children can now control strong feelings a lot better, but we know that they will probably still have some tantrums. They start to understand social skills like sharing and being kind, but only when they’re feeling safe and happy. They often enjoy being and playing with other children. They learn that other people are real and have feelings. They now wait a short time for what they want, such as;‘we will go out after you eat your meal, we will give you loved one thing after you eat your meal, after you finish your shower on time, after you brush your teeth’.;They’re less likely to have kicking and screaming tantrums. They become eager to please us, so with our help, they might try something else or wait a few minutes for what they want. Our children may still be scared of monsters, noises, the dark or some animals. They now have a developing sense of humor, and like to laugh at situations and repeat silly words.

During this Social and emotional development we need to..
·;;;;;;;;;Give our children choices but keep them limited – i.e.;‘you can wear your red shoes or your blue ones’.
·;;;;;;;;;Allow and it’s OK if they still need a dummy, blanket or other comforter when they’re tired or away from home.
·;;;;;;;;;Focus on that they must not have strong belief of what ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ should be like – i.e.;‘girls wear pretty dresses and boys are like Superman.’ In fact we must focus on not to let them lead towards gender inequality.;
·;;;;;;;;;Keep in mind that our children are starting to take responsibility for toileting, but they may still have accidents (wet pants) during the day and be wet at night.

Development of Understanding:
Our children’s ‘inner world’ is very powerful. It can be difficult to sort out ‘pretend’ and ‘real’. They do not tell ‘lies’ as such, but sometimes imagination and reality get mixed up. Never laugh at their confusion. Give them small amounts of simple information when explaining things.

During the development of Understating, our children
·;;;;;;;;;Can now understand that their mind is separate from others.
·;;;;;;;;;Still don’t really understand about things like height and size. For example, they think that a tall thin glass holds more than a short fat one – so there can be mistakes with pouring.
·;;;;;;;;;Understand at some extent the meaning of tall, short, big and little.
·;;;;;;;;;Can say ‘she’s a girl’ (or he’s a boy) and whether other children are boys or girls.
·;;;;;;;;;Can tell you how old they are.
·;;;;;;;;;May be able to draw a person by the time they’re growing. The person will probably have a big round head with eyes and a mouth, maybe with legs poking straight out of the head.
·;;;;;;;;;Can speech and Language.
·;;;;;;;;;Start talking in simple sentences. There is so much going on inside their head that often the words can’t come out fast enough to describe it all.
·;;;;;;;;;Might stumble when expressing themselves – it can be exhausting to listen and explain things to your child, but enjoy being able to share in their rich imagination.
·;;;;;;;;;Will usually be able to let you know what they want in most situations.
·;;;;;;;;;Some speak very clearly, while others still use some ‘baby talk’.
·;;;;;;;;;Will ask lots of ‘What’, ‘Who’, ‘Where’ and ‘Why’ questions.
·;;;;;;;;;Can talk about what happened yesterday and about tomorrow.

Some children become such enthusiastic talkers that their constant questions can become annoying. Try to slow this down by asking the questions instead, or for some quiet time – at least for a few minutes.

In this phase of turning into childhood,;we, as parents, must give our children lots of freedom for physical activities. We should allow them as much time as we can to;‘get things right’;or do it for themselves – be patient! We should give them plenty of soft warning before they have to finish an activity and pack up their toys, or get ready to leave the house. We should provide simple games with turns and rules so they can start to learn about cooperation. We should provide lots of love, fun, approval and encouragement. But we also need to start setting limits that we can and are prepared to enforce.

Remember !!!
Every child is unique. Every child is different and may develop at different rates.;

So, if your child does not do some of these things, they may be ‘working’ on a different area of learning and development. However, children usually follow the same pattern of development, and it’s good to feel that your child is developing normally, in their own unique way.