A healthy early childhood development starts with a safe and stimulating environment. As they grow, children need opportunities to learn, play and develop socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively.
Research shows that a child’s early experiences can impact their future learning and behaviour. These impacts can affect their health and well-being for a lifetime. Here are some ways to support your child’s learning and growth milestones.
Read to Your Child
Reading to your child is a great way to build a personal bond and stimulate their brain development. It also helps improve their literacy skills and promotes vital life skills like concentration and listening.
Kids learn a lot from reading books, especially stories that teach values and morals. These stories often include scenarios that help children understand how to handle situations in their daily lives and can help them build their coping skills.
As children grow older, they will continue to benefit from their exposure to many different types of books. These can be books about their favourite animals, noises or shapes, as well as information and educational books about different places. Learn more at https://littlelearners.com.au/ how you can support your child’s early learning.
Talk to Your Child
Talking to your child is one of the most essential strategies for supporting early childhood learning and growth. It helps your child develop a vocabulary of words, improving their reading and writing skills.
Studies show that the more words a child hears, the more prepared they will be for school. It is called the “word gap.”
Children who don’t hear enough words in early childhood have a more challenging time learning to read and write, and they may struggle to complete their schoolwork.
You can help to fill that word gap by talking with your child, as much as possible, every day. You can do this in various ways, including reading books together and telling stories.
Encourage Your Child to Explore
Encouraging your child to explore the world around them is essential for their development. It helps them to become curious, ask questions, make deductions and learn about the natural world.
When young children explore, they experience a heightened sense of mastery, competence and self-efficacy. These qualities, often called intrinsic motivation, are essential for learning and long-term success.
You can also encourage your child to touch and feel nature to further their understanding. If you are studying insects, for example, let your child touch and lift them to see how they move.
Encourage Your Child to Take Risks
Children develop confidence, resilience and other skills when they engage in risky play. As a parent, you can encourage your child to take risks and help them overcome their fears while trying new things in their safe environment.
Whether learning to use a knife in the kitchen, staying home alone for the first time or trying out for a sports team, taking risks allows kids to experience positive emotions essential for growth and development. When they fail, they can learn from their mistakes and build on their successes, gaining the courage and confidence to take more risks.
Encouraging your child to take risks is a key component of parenting, but knowing where to draw the line can be challenging. Parents are often overprotective and afraid of their children taking risks because they don’t want to harm them.
Encourage Your Child to Be Independent
It’s important to encourage independence by allowing your child to try new things, master tasks and challenges without supervision and set realistic goals for them. It’s also a good idea to be their biggest cheerleader when they succeed!
When it comes to teaching your kids new skills, practice makes perfect. So start by helping your children with simple tasks like putting clothes in the hamper, using the sink and the toilet or walking to the car.
Once they have mastered those essential tasks, introduce new challenges in baby steps! For example, when your child can tie their shoes, help them learn how to do a few more simple things like riding a bike or carrying their lunch box. Then let them tackle more significant to-dos as they feel ready.
Encourage Your Child to Ask Questions
Asking questions is vital for your child’s development. It develops their critical thinking skills and encourages them to explore and learn about the world around them.
According to studies, young children often ask up to 288 questions daily! While this may seem tedious, these questions are vital to their growth and development.
They will grow into well-rounded, independent, confident learners who are encouraged to ask questions throughout their lives!
Encouraging your child to ask questions also helps build a “growth mindset,” which fosters intelligence and creative problem-solving.
You can encourage your child to ask questions during group and independent work by providing strategies that make asking easy. For example, you could make a bulletin board display that shows how you answer questions during lessons.
Encourage Your Child to Be Flexible
Developing flexible thinking skills is one way you can encourage your child to adapt to these changes. This strategy helps your child understand that they can positively change their behaviour to respond to different situations.
You can also support your child to be more flexible by encouraging them to consider multiple solutions and perspectives when solving problems. It will help them think more flexibly in their everyday lives and academic tasks.
In addition, helping your child improve their flexibility skills can boost other areas of executive function like impulse control, working memory, and planning & prioritization. As your child improves flexible thinking, point out and celebrate their gains.
