Make The Most of the Moments

Tips & Strategies for Parents

Understanding a young child's developmental stage helps insure that parents don't ask too much or too little of their child.  A parent's correct expectation leads to building a child's self esteem and producing cooperative behavior. 

Each child has a unique timetable for growth.  With physical growth it is easy to see a child follow a typical sequence of growth events like sitting up, crawling, pulling up, cruising, and walking.  The same is true for emotional growth, cognitive growth (learning), and language growth.  Understanding this developmental sequence helps parents know how to encourage growth in these areas. 

Understanding developmental stages helps parents realize what their child's behavior is all about.  For example a two year old is in the "me do it" stage, learning independent skills is important so often a two year old will use the word "no."  Understanding this is an important stage of development helps parents respond to the behavior rather than react to it.