Young children need help and support to understand death and other losses. Helping a young child deal with loss and grief is one of the most difficult responsibilities a child care provider may face. Young children do feel grief when they lose someone or something special to them. Most adults recognize that children experience grief at the death of a loved one — including a family member, a friend, or even a pet.
But children also experience grief during other …
Learning to use the toilet is an important milestone for young children. Child care providers and parents need to work together to decide when a toddler is ready to learn how to use the toilet. Here are some things child care providers should keep in mind as toddlers approach this important milestone:
Children of all ages need both active and quiet times every day. For infants and toddlers, quiet times are nap times when they need extra sleep. As children grow older, they may not need to sleep during the day. Quiet activities, like reading books, working on puzzles, stringing large beads, drawing, or playing board games, can give children a time for rest.
As children grow older, they may not need to take an afternoon nap. This does not mean they …
Learning to use the toilet is an important developmental milestone for toddlers. Child care providers can help children with this learning process by being encouraging, knowing the signs of toilet learning readiness, and keeping toileting routines as consistent as possible while children learn how to use the toilet.
Each child will follow his or her own time schedule in being ready to use the toilet. To use the toilet successfully, children must be able to …
Cognitive development refers to the ability to know and understand the world. It includes our ability to think about and remember what is happening around us.
Children’s thinking is different from the thinking of adults. Although adults have more information about the world, they also understand the world in different ways than children do. Over time, children move through distinct stages of thinking as they develop more complex ways of understanding the world.
When children are born, their brain is …
Biting is common among very young children, particularly in group settings such as child care. It is very important for child care providers to understand why children bite so that they can help children find more appropriate ways to express themselves.
There are many reasons why young children bite. Here are some of the most common ones:
The early elementary years are an important time for social and emotional development. During the early school years, having friends, whether they are special friends or best friends, is very important. Children at this age level want to be able to fit in with their peers and may prefer to play with their own gender for awhile. This is also a time where children begin to show interest in the rules and whether or not something is done “right.” The …
As young children grow, they learn different ways to process information from the world around them, and their thinking skills are very different at different ages. Infants are focused on exploring the world around them. Preschool-age children like to ask questions and test out ideas. School-age children think logically, but still have a hard time understanding abstract concepts such as “freedom.”
Child care providers can help young children develop thinking skills by observing carefully, providing interesting materials and problems, asking …
Physical development is an important area of child development that includes children’s physical growth, as well as their increasing ability to control the muscles of their bodies. Children’s physical development follows a predictable pattern, but each child grows at his or her own rate. Active play helps children develop their motor skills. Child care programs can support children’s physical development by providing safe surroundings, good nutrition and plenty of time for active play and exploration. Learn more about how child …
As children begin elementary school, they also show important advances in both thinking and language skills. They become better at logical thinking and problem-solving. They are motivated, active learners. School-age children begin to learn bigger words, to produce longer and more complex sentences, to manipulate language in new ways, to learn subtle exceptions to grammar rules and to understand their native tongue much better.
Child care providers in out-of-school child care programs can support the development of thinking and language …
