By Rick Rockwell
Body awareness provides children with a perception of the dimensions of their bodies -- the shapes their bodies can make and spaces into which they can fit, what movements their bodies can accomplish and what their body parts actually are. Body awareness relies on tactile and vestibular position senses. There are several exercises children can do to help improve body awareness.
Mar 31, 2011 | By Pam Murphy
Children who are 12 months to 30 months of age are considered toddlers. The toddler stage refers to the time between infancy and preschool age when children are walking, learning to be independent and mastering the important gross and fine motor skills they will need to move around in and participate in their environment. Fine motor skills develop naturally through developmentally appropriate play, so toddlers need plenty of time to explore and experiment with age-appropriate toys, manipulatives and art materials.
Children in the 2- to 5-year-old age group get their motivation and develop motor skills from self-play behaviors. Active games and play in the backyard, with friends at the park, or in heavily padded rooms can provide great sources of exercise in addition to nurturing that important relationship between parent and child.
Skills such as taking a first step, smiling for the first time, and waving "bye bye" are called developmental milestones. Children reach milestones in how they play, learn, speak, behave, and move (crawling, walking, etc.).
Toddler Speech Development
Some toddlers are very chatty, others are more quiet, and every kid develops at their own pace. I see this firsthand with my twins -- they don't hit their milestones at the same time. Often it's not something to worry about, but as the parent, you know your child best and your instinct will tell you if a missed or slow-to-come milestone should be mentioned to your doctor.
Early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder can improve the lives of everyone affected, but the complex network of causes make it incredibly difficult to predict. At TEDxPeachtree, Ami Klin describes a new early detection method that uses eye-tracking technologies to gauge babies' social engagement skills and reliably measure their risk of developing autism.
How do You Know if Your Baby has Colic? Infants with colic flail and kick and let out frantic screams. Once they get started, they can yell, on and off, for hours, often mysteriously starting at just about the same time every day-creating a family's very own "witching hour."
A major part of discipline is learning how to talk with children. The way you talk to your child teaches him how to talk to others. here are some talking tips we have learned with our children.
Most adults know what it takes to keep fit, but few know how much physical activity toddlers should get. A toddler naturally wants to move around, and if you let him follow his instincts, tiring as it may be, you can help pave a path to a healthy future for your toddler. You don't need to spend a lot of money on classes and activities to keep your toddler active.