Parenting a toddler means exploring sensory experiences

When parenting a toddler, you should include exposing your child to a wide variety of healthy sensory experiences. Very young children are little sponges, learning from every experience they encounter, good or bad. They are constantly learning, often things we as parents are not even aware of. Research shows that up to the age of ten, the parents are the biggest influence in their little lives, even if the children are in daycare or kindergarten.

Parenting a toddler requires you to plan to sow quality time into your child’s life from birth to two years of age.

Parenting a toddler can seem very tricky when you do not know how a toddler ticks. When you have a clearer idea of what is important for a toddler to develop and why they do what they do, patience and creativity can become a big part of your parenting.

Knowledge is power. More of an understanding brings perspective and as parents we soon realize we only need to be one step ahead of our children. So, read on.

It is good to remember when parenting a toddler that each child is unique and that children all grow and develop at different rates and times.

Do not get too worried if other children start walking at a specific age and your child does not walk at exactly the same age. Your concerns are valid and you need to monitor your baby, yes, but keep the big picture in mind if your child seems well and the doctor finds nothing wrong. Avoid focussing on only one negative concern of your child try to keep the whole child in mind and keep building on their strengths. This will help to keep matters in some kind of balance.

When parenting a toddler, some who want their children and especially their firstborn to be super clean, may in the process limit their children from important exploration development. This might be playing outside, playing with mud, crawling around or feeding themselves. Crawling on different textures such as carpets, tile floors, wooden floors and of course, on the grass outside, is a very important developmental aspect for toddlers.

Through these experiences, the foundation for association is made. “This feels like …” “This makes me think of …..” This is especially important when children are studying. Creativity is also connected when all the senses can be incorporated in the learning process. The memory is also activated to a greater extent, as the right and left sides of the brain are both required to participate.

When we have experienced something fully, we can match our learned vocabulary to that experience more easily than trying to learn a new word without an experience to act as a hook for new words. Once we have touched, smelled, seen and heard a dog, it is much easier to link the word ‘dog’ to our experience. More parts of the brain are active in the learning experience.

Developing a sense of humour can also be beneficial in connecting and retaining new facts and new learning. Developing the ability to see the funny side is an important skill in coping with life and living. Learning to laugh has many benefits.

When studying for exams, it is amazing how much easier it is to remember a difficult fact or concept if we associate that with a funny, strange or unusual experience and involve as much of our sensory memory as possible.

Reading good children’s books can further enrich and add more to the already established sensory experiences of the young child. Repeat readings of the same book is very important, (and is a favourite with very young children!)

Some tips and ideas to support the young child’s sensory development:

From about 12 months you can:

Play games and songs to establish a healthy body awareness. Songs such as “Head, shoulders, knees and toes”. You can also play them while looking in a mirror. This aids with visual identification and understanding as well as getting the child used to how they look.

Point out in an age appropriate book the different pictures and how they relate to the story.

Visit touch and feel farms or places where touching is encouraged. More and more places are becoming aware of the importance of touching.

Sandpits and mud are important textures to explore: Make sand castles and mud cakes together. You can decorate your cakes with seeds, stones and other things you find in the garden. Remember to capture their artwork by a taking a photo. These picture records later on become favourites to look back on.

Blackboard and chalk can be a fun experience for scribbling. You can also scribble on paving bricks and driveways with chalk as it washes off quite easily. One of the important things here is the size of the drawings you can do: The bigger the better!

Paint a wall together. Show your child how to use your shoulder movements as you paint. It is great to paint on the outside of glass sliding doors with water paint that can easily be washed off.

Invest in a building block set with various shapes. Name the shapes as you play with your child.

Cardboard boxes make wonderful toys and put the fun into parenting a toddler. Children love to play with boxes, smaller boxes for making a box train to pull their soft toys along and bigger boxes to making a play house with blankets and cushions.

It is great fun for boys and girls to play with a ball. Start by rolling soft balls of various sizes to each other and later kicking and throwing various sized ball outside.

Play games where you put things in various positions. For example; “The teddy is on top of the table”, or, “The teddy is now under the table.” Later you can ask “Where is the teddy now?”

Find pictures in a magazine, cut them out and make simple three piece puzzles to start off. It is also a good idea to start with full length pictures of the human figure and later move to other themes.

Talk about things in descriptive language. “That is a big, noisy truck” “Look how small the red kite is in the sky.”

Big building blocks or counting blocks are great for explaining how things fit into each other.

Fun books with touch and feel pieces are great fun.

From about 18 months:

Read basic stories that apply to their daily lives in a positive way: Such as, washing dishes and other chores, bicycles, bath time, bedtime, seasons, swimming, animals, pets, gardening, road safety and books that encourage imagination.

Use finger puppets to tell stories with the puppets talking to each other.

Play under the lawn sprinkler on a hot, sunny day.

Use play dough as much as possible. Feeling the textures and learning to understand the basics of developing shapes is very important.

Make a point of complimenting and encouraging your children on a daily basis just for who they are.

Invest in a jungle gym and swings or visit a safe play park where possible.

From about 24 months:

Use old cardboard boxes to make an obstacle course. Remember to include that all important activity of crawling when you set out your obstacle course.

A big box can also make a good front for a puppet theatre. Ask your children to help paint designs or pictures on the outside of the box. Use cardboard boxes to design and build a race ramp for toy cars.

Practise standing on one leg at a time. This stimulates and promotes good balance.

Use an exercise ball and bounce softly on it while holding your child in your lap or in the air. Be aware to not bounce too wildly; avoid too much stress on the neck muscles and back, (yours as well as those of your child!)

Dance and swing side to side or forward and back while listening to music.

Allow your child to do simple tasks on his/her own. A good one is allowing them to carry a plate of cookies to offer to your guests.

Work towards building puzzles with 9 pieces.

Make a point of complimenting and encouraging your toddler on a daily basis.

Use fun bath toys that pour, turn, squirt, float and sink. Tell or ask the child what the toy is doing.

You can use a few drops of food colouring in the bath to have fun while learning about different colours.

Point out opposites. “That car is far away. This car is close to us.” Wider, lighter, emptier, and so on.

Imitate animal sounds; “The sheep goes Baaa, baaa.”

Sing along with songs. Practise sing high and low. “Let sing high” or “Let sing low”.

Work together when making cookies. Kneading, rolling and pressing out the shapes.

Crunch pieces of tissue paper and throw them into a basket.

Even collecting rough and smooth stones will enrich parenting a toddler. Chat about their textures and where you would find them.

Make a collage using different objects and fabric textures. Name the different textures.

Finger painting is a great idea when parenting a toddler. You can also add a few drops of safe Aromatic Essential oils, such as orange, mandarin, apple, peach, vanilla, lavender. This will give the room and the artwork a beautiful aroma.

Parenting a toddler to parenting curriculum