Toddler Activities and Their Importance in Child Development

!±8± Toddler Activities and Their Importance in Child Development

The brain of a young child is often likened to soft, moldable clay: Impressionable and receptive. All throughout infancy and early childhood, there are countless neural pathways waiting to be formed. These will affect how well your child interacts with and performs in the world.

The toddler age is a critical time in child development. Variety is of the utmost importance, because different types of toddler activities will stimulate different centers of the brain.

You should either disallow television or strictly limit the amount of time your toddler spends in front of it. TV stimulates the brain, but encourages no use of imagination, interaction or physical activity, and evidence exists that it may cause problems with aggression. Such chronic and high levels of stimulation addicts the brain to television, stagnating healthy learning and development.

Creativity

The creative process plays an extremely important role in child development. Engaging in unstructured creative toddler activities teaches your child how to come up with new ideas and perspectives, and helps them to develop their sense of self and discover their own personal aesthetic tastes. Creative pursuits are also fantastic for development of fine motor control and concentration. You can encourage your toddler by providing tools. Nearly anything may be used to create something, from crayons, finger paint and construction paper to sticks, seeds and beads. You can also make a game of looking for patterns and shapes in things like tiles, wood grain, clouds and shadows.

Reasoning

One of the earliest opportunities for teaching your toddler reasoning skills is when they begin to eat on their own. Foods in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes can be surprising tools for this purpose. You may find your child sorting their foods by logical category: by size, color, type, or shape. This means that your child's brain is learning to distinguish differences and similarities.

Many parents have been frustrated by the endless flow of whats, whys and hows coming from their toddler. However, this is possibly one of the best opportunities to teach reasoning skills. Try to answer their questions honestly and to the best of your ability. If you don't know, say so. Admitting that you don't know something teaches your child that nobody is infallible.

Language

The ability to communicate is necessary to be able to function in society, and the sooner your child learns, the better a start they will have. Some useful toddler activities include reading to your child, talking with them and playing name games where you have them repeat the names of random objects. When your toddler responds correctly, reward him or her with praise.

Exploration

Children are naturally curious and love to explore. Inside the house, in the park, or in your yard, encourage your toddler to look in, under and around things. They will surely find endless things that fascinate them. If you like to garden, let your child help you and put them in charge of moving the worms and other bugs to a safe place. Such activities increase their awareness of the environment, and teach them that the world is a big, diverse place.