Parenting is one of the most important and influential jobs there are in the world. A parent is a child’s first teacher. Parents want their child to be smart and succeed, however at what rate and at what risk? There are many programs out there such as: My Baby Can Read with flashcards and Baby Einstein. These programs claim to promote early learning. Though is it truly early learning or is it pushing your child to a limit where they are just memorizing? What kind of messages are programs like these sending to our parents?
Flashcards and drilling your child daily is not the answer . Children learn the best through play. There are many interactions throughout the day that are a learning opportunities for your infants and toddlers. Play promotes learning in language, math, science, social/emotional, and cognitive skills. It’s important to play and talk to your child whether they are an infant, toddler, preschooler, or any age.
Early learning is essential for brain development in young children. It is imperative for a child’s language development for parents to talk, read, or sing to your infant to build on their early language skills. Some parents believe that talking to their infant doesn’t make a difference and they couldn’t be more wrong.
On the website zero to three they discuss how early experiences affect brain development. Researchers found that the more the parents spoke to their infants they learned almost 300 words by the age of 2 than others who didn’t have that type of interactions with their parents.
Child development happens at different rates for every child. It is very important to know what is developmentally appropriate for your child and where they should be. It’s important not to panic if your child hasn’t mastered a development skill. The most important thing is to know what age appropriate for your child is. I added links on brain development and developmental stages by the American Academy of Pediatrics to help with learning these stages.
For more info: http://www.zerotothree.org
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