Holiday Season Behavior Expectations and Toddlers

We have been waiting all year for this and finally the holiday season is here!  We have prepared so much and made many plans for enjoying this time with our loved ones, friends and family.  While in a perfect world out toddlers would be on their best behavior, we are gonna have to be realistic.  Holiday's and change of routines can be rough for everyone, toddlers especially. Lets recognize all the factors that can have an effect on a toddler's behavior. Change in schedule might mean different nap, sleep, and eating routines. The hustle and bustle might limit expected attention from mommy and daddy.  Guests or visiting others might introduce new and unfamiliar suroundings and people.  The foods your toddler is used to eating might suddenly be replaced with something undesirable.  If we consider all the changes happening in a toddler's world in this short time it will be easy to understand if his behavior is not exactly the "best" we have ever seen.
Ways to help decrease some of the holiday stress on toddlers is:
1) Trying to keep to the schedule as much as possible.
2) Bring favorite foods with you if you are visiting others, or offer these favorites at home holiday meals.
3) Napping and eating before going out when possible
4) Try to keep some 1:1 time with your toddler or facilitate transitioning to a new place by taking the time needed until your toddler is comfortable in their new suroundings.
5) Encourage others to respect the toddlers boundaries such as reading cues of he does not want to be picked up or kissed by strangers.
6) Most important : Just understanding why this season might be tough on your Toddler and adjust your expectations.

Happy Holidays!!!!!!

Fun Crossing MIdline Activities for Infant, Baby, and Toddler

 

Our last post described why crossing midline activities were beneficial for your baby's Brain development.  Here are some ideas for fun crossing midline activities for your baby at every stage.

For infants - Tracking tasks such as following an object or a moving mobile from side to side. Tracking in this manner engages the body visually in its first opportunity to cross midline from the right to the left side and back.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             For babies – crawling and side to side reaching activities, encouraged by you, such as having them hold a desired item in one hand so that they need to use the other hand to cross over and retrieve another item, are examples of midline crossing in play. Another activity that facilitates visual midline crossing is using puppets moving in different directions that encourage a delighted baby to follow with his eyes.

For toddlers –Games like patty cake, bubble popping, passing the ball around in a circle while holding the ball with two hands, rolling a toy car along a path, turning the wheel of a toy car all the way around with one hand only, and pretending to be an elephant while on all fours swinging one hand right to left like the elephant swings its trunk, are more examples of midline crossing in play.

Now that you are aware of the importance and benefit of midline crossing activities you will know what games to encourage during playtime.

CROSSING MIDLINE AND BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

Babies new experiences enhance brain development.  Each new experience creates a new connection and repetition of that experience helps influence the speed of response for that task or activity.  Of course we want to help our children respond to their environments and experiences with the greatest ease possible allowing for improved learning opportunities and success with tasks. The brain is divided into many parts, each of which is responsible for an individual action.  For example, the area of the brain know as the "Broca" area is responsible for language, the cerebellum is responsible for coordination and on and on it goes.  In truth, the brain does not work part by part but rather multiple parts of the brain are working simultaneously to complete the complex motor actions of human beings. On a larger scale the brain is divided into two parts that we call the right brain and left brain. The brain will work with greatest efficiency when the right and left sides of the brain work together easily. One very significant task that requires midline crossing, for older children, is reading and writing. In order to read and write a child must be able to work from one side of the page to the other. So yes, how we encourage our babies now will help facilitate their educational needs later. We therefore encourage our children to engage in activities that require crossing the midline and by doing so we encourage the right and left brain to work together. Cross lateral movement patterns such as the right arm moving over to the left side of the body to retrieve an item is one example of midline crossing. 

Our next post will discuss play and activities that will promote midline crossing.

 

Baby Development 18-24 Months

Many exciting changes will take place during the 18-24 month stage. Your toddler’s balance has improved so that she’s now able to run, climb, play ball and negotiate stairs. Your toddler’s play skills will mature to being able to color, complete simple puzzles and build a multiple block tower. She will start stringing large beads and turning the pages of a book one at a time. Your toddler's pretend play skills are growing. Your toddler is now able to solve simple problems and communicate her needs to you. She can do things like remember where an item belongs and turn the handle of a doorknob to open the door. She has begun to express emotions and understands emotions in others. Language skills and social interaction are increasing at a rapid pace. With practice self feeding and dressing skills will continue to grow .

During this stage offer ride on toys, tunnel games, and encourage jumping. Your toddler should be enjoying the slide and other playground equipment. Continue to offer toys such as Lego, puzzles, and pegboards.  Your toddler will want to play pretend play games with you.  Encourage her interest in shopping, fixing things around the house, or taking care of her baby. Keep up the conversation and sing song games. Encourage labeling of items in the environment. Read to your toddler. Provide sensory play opportunities with bath toys, and varied textures like cookie doughs and containers filled with rice and similar tactile items.  Keep on encouraging the development of independent skills such as feeding and dressing.

Baby Development 12-18 Months

During the 12- 18 Month stage your toddler should master the very important milestone of learning to walk. Gross motor development will move quickly during these few months. Your toddler is now becoming independent and will develop his own interests and toy preferences. With his new found independence your toddler's interest in self feeding and dressing will increase. Your toddler is now able to isolate his pointer finger and play with toys using both his right and left hand. He will begin to stack 2 or more cubes, place pegs in a pegboard, and place a circle in the right place of a puzzle board. You’ll be delighted as your toddler indicates the first signs of pretend play such as bringing a bottle to a doll’s mouth. Interest and attention for books will increase and your toddler will want to turn the pages himself. Your toddler should have some words in his vocabulary and will be responding to simple requests. Your baby will love to be the center of attention during this stage and will begin to give you hugs and kisses.

Activities and Expectations for Your Baby 12-18 Months Old

During the 12- 18 Month stage your toddler should master the very important milestone of learning to walk. Gross motor development will move quickly during these few months. Your toddler is now becoming independent and will develop his own interests and toy preferences. With his new found independence your toddler's interest in self feeding and dressing will increase. Your toddler is now able to isolate his pointer finger and play with toys using both his right and left hand. He will begin to stack 2 or more cubes, place pegs in a pegboard, and place a circle in the right place of a puzzle board. You’ll be delighted as your toddler indicates the first signs of pretend play such as bringing a bottle to a doll’s mouth. Interest and attention for books will increase and your toddler will want to turn the pages himself. Your toddler should have some words in his vocabulary and will be responding to simple requests. Your baby will love to be the center of attention during this stage and will begin to give you hugs and kisses.

 During this stage your baby will be motor driven.  He may be more interested in moving then social interaction or even playing with toys.  This is good,  he will need this movement practice to help develop his stability in upright and build his balance. This would be a good time to introduce a rocking horse.  Hold your toddlers hand and help him at the steps. Introduce him to ball games and bubbles. Your baby can start playing with toys such as mega blocks and large pop beads, items that he can put together and pull apart.  He will begin to stack cubes. He will enjoy basic shape puzzles, pegboards, nesting cups, and shape sorters. It's time to introduce crayons and paper to hold and scribble on. Increase your song repertoire and play in song such as "open- shut- them". Provide animated stuffed animals your toddler can activate and sing with. You can teach your toddler body parts and animal sounds.  Encourage your toddler to start participating in routines such as clean up and taking off his own socks before the bath.  Encourage independent feed skills with utensils and assist as needed. Keep talking and reading to your baby and encouraging more language development.