What your child is doing
- Referring to themselves by name
- Crawling up stairs and coming down backwards
- Echoing what others (especially you and other children) say
- Understanding 10 times more than he/she can put into words
- Starting to lose the "baby" look and develop a leaner frame
- Actively seeking praise from you and other caregivers
What not to worry about – sleep problems
At around eighteen months your child may start to fight you on the sleep front. Aside from refusing to go to bed and to sleep at night, they may be waking up very early and refusing to go back to sleep. As painful as this is for you, it’s normal. Some of it’s about refusing to be confined (are you having car seat and pushchair troubles too?) and some of it is a determination to get his/her own way. The answer is to take a deep breath, stay calm but also stay firm with your routine.
How you can help your child at this age
- Draw pictures and colour with your child with pencils to help him/her get used to holding a pencil. Most kids of this age will hold a pencil in their whole hand or between the thumb and first two fingers.
- Play with simple jigsaw puzzles to help your child to develop basic problem solving skills as well as hand-eye coordination.
- Encourage messy play with sand, water and paint. Messy play helps with young children's cognitive and creative development as it involves using all the senses, without the child having to make something.
Troubleshooting - “My daughter prefers to play alone and won’t play with her friends.”
“Toddlers do not show much of an interest in playing together with other children until they are around 3 years old”, says psychologist Natalie King. “Instead they tend to engage in what’s known as "parallel play. This is where they play next to or along side each other. To you it looks like playing alone but if they are happy leave them to it.”
Bounty
Bounty
