Learn the tricks of making the most crucial decision affecting your child

Posted by Born Smart Comms on May 26th, 2017

Every child is special. Each child’s DNA is designed from the inherit traits from his parents, as well as the environment he/she is brought up in. 90% of the child’s brain is developed by the age of three, out of which, 50% could be credited to the genes a child inherits from ‘parents’ and the rest is determined by the ‘environment’.

Development of child is a phased-process. Let us understand each stage to decide, where your child needs improvement.

1. Exploring the Senses Stage (Between 1-9 months):

 It’s this period of first 9 months, baby is exposed to various senses/stimuli – touch, feel, sound, smell, and vision. Reciprocity, proto conversation, and face-to-face interactions by parents, assist in sensory development.

2. Exploring the Environment Stage (Between 10-18 months):

During this period, babies’ use their sensory learning to understand the environment. They try to develop a communication with their environment, using their sensory abilities. E.g. Learning to grasp, changing tones to influence environmental elements like parents, among others.

3. Being Independent (19-26 months):

This period is defined by the willingness of child, to be independent. They start deriving pleasures in individual acts like moving alone, communicating their exact needs, playing with toys etc. This period of developed mobility and willingness to explore, should be carefully dealt with, because it can be the launch-pad of their upcoming personality.

Post this age of three, parents need to make a crucial call of choosing the right parent - toddler program, to help their child be a resource to the world. Choosing the right educational program, requires fulfillment of the following criteria:

1. It should nurture the child’s growing brain.
2. Hone Parenting skills
3. Program should be customized to growth needs of child
4. It should cater to a plethora of abilities development like motor abilities, language skill, socio-emotional skills and cognitive skills.
5. Educational program should offer around an hour of parent-toddler bonding, so that child doesn’t feel left alone.
6. Parent-toddler program schedule should be flexible, relaxing and fun engagement for both parents and toddler.
7. Apart from parent child activities, it’s important to have some group activities, which can cater to child social engagement skills.
8. It should be a learning experience for parents as well. It should help parents understand the non-verbal and verbal signals by child, parenting issues, and the growth needs of a child.
9. This program should not be just theoretical but practical as well. Infact, it should be mostly practical involving various games, activities and parent-toddler interaction. Activities like yoga and massage can be a great add-on.
10. It should nurture the skills like listening, language, physical, social, emotional, cognitive, eye-hand coordination and strengthen the parent-toddler bond.