So the world has been send into an unprecedented difficult situation. Most countries are on lockdown meaning no work, no school, no child care and in most cases no domestic help. Parents and children are spending a lot of time together – which is actually a positive thing.
However younger children can be a bit of a handful especially if their routines are turned upside down and there is uncertainty. So in this article, we try and help parents understand the developmental milestones and suggest activities that parents can do to stimulate the young ones from 1year to 3years of age.

1 year – 1 year 6 months developmental milestones

• There is a lot of development that takes place at this stage that is language development, cognitive development, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, social behavior, and emotional skills.

• Lots of language development as babbles start turning into imitations of words.
• Pays a lot of attention to speech and can even respond to simple verbal requests.
• There is a transition from crawling to standing and taking their first steps either independently or holding on to furniture.
• Starts picking up things using the pincer grip.
• Can bang toys together.
• Can purposefully reach for things and let go of the thing
• Can put things in the mouth independently.
• Can find hidden objects easily (Object permanency developing)
• Is able to imitate gestures.
• Begins to use objects correctly like drinking from a cup, dialing phone, tries to feed self with a spoon, etc.
• Explores objects in many different ways, for example, shaking, banging, throwing or dropping
• Gets anxious or shy with strangers.

• Cries for familiar family members like mum, dad or siblings.
• Enjoys watching other children in play.
• Crying is used more liberally and more purposefully to get their way.
• Testing parental responses to their behaviors, for example, crying for the thing you are refusing them to have.

• Can finger feed themselves?
• Seeks the attention of caregivers.
• Mostly engages in independent play.
  
  

Stimulating Activities

• A lot of language stimulation – Respond to infant coos with delighted vocalizations and exaggerated facial expressions and drawn-out vowels to help your child absorb all the sounds of your language. The areas of the brain responsible for understanding speech and producing language need a rich input at this time. Use Pictures and do object labels and animal sounds. I personally recommend one dominant language at a time (a topic to be discussed fully in a separate article on language development).
  Read daily not just at bedtime but encourage a culture of reading even from this early age. Use mostly picture books to point and label animals and objects.
  Play games that involve hands. Activities like letting them finger feed themselves, put up a puppet show, mud puddle, water painting with hands and feet, anything to engage your baby and capture their attention using their hands and yours. Using your hands shows a young child how we physically interact with our world and manipulate objects. At this age, they are very sensory and they want to touch or eat everything so just make sure it is very much controlled.
  Sing nursery rhymes or play baby music – a lot of toddlers respond to melody and gets excited, you can sing to her/him or play baby music on a screen. However, screen time should never be used to keep child busy on their own but rather a bonding session and language training in songs and limited.
  Set up a playtime routine – this helps with predictability which in turn brings calm.
  Choose toys that allow your toddler to explore, interact and problem-solve – Toys such as a windup jack-in-the-box, stackable blocks, sensory books, musical toys where you press a button/s to play help your baby learn cause-and-effect relationships and “if-then” reasoning.
  Respond promptly when your baby cries. Soothe, nurture, cuddle, and reassure her/him so that you build positive brain circuitry in the limbic area of the brain, which is involved in emotions. Your calm holding and cuddling, and your day-to-day engagement with your baby, signal emotional security to the brain. This age group are busy bodies and almost cries for anything – don’t hold back on the positive attention as they still don’t understand much and still self-oriented.
  Arrange supervised play with messy materials – this can be on the floor, outside if you have a garden with sand or in the bathroom to play with toys in the water. This will teach your child about the properties of liquids, solids, and mixtures — sensory experiences that are crucial for the learning brain. (Just make sure they don’t eat what they are not supposed to).
  Set up a safe environment for crawling or moving – This age group is very curious and difficult to confine in small spaces so set up a safe environment for this developmental milestone. At this stage your mobile child will begin to understand spatial parameters and vocabulary such as ‘stop’ ‘come’ ‘go’ etc. and the relationship between objects of different shapes and sizes (those that are big versus little, for instance), they will even know the difference between their own environment and new settings. Your toddler will start to establish mental maps of their environment and a comfortable relationship with the world in which they live. So in this lockdown period continue reinforcing home as a safe place.
  Give body massages – This can lower your infant’s stress levels and enhance feelings of well-being and emotional security. Loving touches even promote growth physically and mentally; as much as they are learning independence they still need a lot of physical touch for proper mental adjustment.
  Match your tempo to your child’s temperament – Some children adjust easily to strange situations — some are bold and impulsive, and some are quite shy. Go with the flow and find positive ways of encouraging your child to be comfortable.

1 year 6 months – 3yrs developmental milestones

From this stage roughly your child is advancing from infancy into the preschool years. During this time, his or her physical growth and motor development will slow down, but you can expect to see some tremendous intellectual, social, and emotional changes.

Because of children’s growing desire to be independent, this stage presents what is often called the “terrible twos.” This is both can an exciting and trying time for parents and toddlers. Toddlers will experience huge thinking, learning, social, and emotional changes that will help them to explore their new world, and make sense of it. During this stage, toddlers should be able to follow two- or three-step directions, sort objects by shape and color, imitate the actions of adults and playmates, and express a wide range of emotions.

• The toddler has mastered body balance and walks alone.
• Pulls toys behind when walking.
• Begins to run.
• Can stand on tippy toes.
• Is able to kick a ball around.
• Has pincer grip and will even take pens and colors on scribble on surfaces.
• Language develops dramatically and by age three they are well-spoken and communicates fairly well (with the exception of developmental delays in language).
• Able to imitate the behavior of others.
• Aware of self as a separate entity.
• Enthusiastic about company of other children.
• They learn to initiate play with others.
• Finds objects even when hidden deep (object permanency is fully developed).
• Sorts by shape and color
• Plays make-believe (imaginative play).
• Stimulating activities
• You can introduce sight words of objects of interests, animals, places, food anything
• Introduce them to naming body parts and other areas of learning that interest them (counting, sorting etc.).
• Put a quiet time/meditation/prayer in place (or whatever your family subscribes to). This age group has fantastic energy that can be too much to manage as they are still learning impulse control – so put activities to teach self-regulation. Provide guidance and comfort; they still need to experiment and learn freely.
• Play matching games with your toddler, like shape sorting and colour matching.
• Encourage your child to explore and try new things – make provision for the curious mind.
• Help to develop your toddler’s language by talking with them and adding to words they start. For example, if your toddler says “water”, you can prompt, “Water please” and continue extending their sentences and vocabulary.
• Encourage your child’s growing independence by letting him help with dressing themselves, feeding self, pack away toys.
• Puzzles are great they stimulate the brain, can even bring calm and help develop problem-solving skills.
• Respond to positive behaviors more than you punish negative ones. Always tell or model to your child what they should do instead.
• Encourage your toddler’s curiosity – be surprised and be amazed at the things they explore or figure out for the first time.
• Lots of reading – Set up a special time to read books with your toddler.
• Encourage your child to take part in pretend play – join in!
• Teach Social Identity – Encourage your child to tell you their name and age or where they live.
• Teach music – Play different kinds of music, or make sounds with your voices and introduce simple instruments like drums or any other instrument that they have interest in. This can encourage dancing and a sense of rhythm.
• If you have a garden, plan more outside activities like cycling, ball games, treasure hunting, etc.
• Give your child attention and praise when she/he follows instructions and shows positive behavior and limit attention for defiant behavior like tantrums. Teach your child acceptable ways to show that they are upset.
• Practice categorization – for example animals versus vegetables, vehicles versus food. Children need to learn about sorting things into categories and seriation (placing things in order; for example, from smallest to largest) as part of their cognitive development.
• Make meals positive – Say the names of foods out loud as your toddler eats. Express pleasure as they learn to feed themselves, no matter how messy the initial attempts may be. This will create pleasant associations with mealtime and eating. Battles and nagging about food, on the other hand, can lead to negative brain patterns.
• Arts and crafts – make time for messy artwork.
• Make time for scribbling and coloring – set materials to encourage scribbling (otherwise, they will scribble on the walls and anything….naturally at this age they are still practicing their pincer grip)
• Provide clear responses to your toddler’s actions – A young, developing brain learns to make sense of the world if you respond to your child’s behavior in predictable, reassuring, and appropriate ways. Be as consistent as possible.
• Model empathic feelings for others – Use teachable moments when someone seems sad or upset to help your toddler learn about feelings, caring, sharing, and kindness. The more brain connections you create for empathic responses and gentle courtesies, the more these brain circuits will be wired in. This helps not only with language and cognitive learning but with positive emotional skills too.
• Encourage positive play with siblings and make time to join in the play.
• Express joy and interest in your toddlers’ activities – this positive reinforcement encourages them to explore more and learn more and more importantly it creates positive self-outlook and confidence of your little one.
• Exercise Gross motor skills – Use a large, softball to practise catching, hitting, bouncing and kicking. Start with something small and easy to hold like a little bean bag or tennis ball. When spaces aren’t safe for balls, some rolled-up socks can be good for this. Makeup games that involve different types of movement, for example, get your child to chase bubbles, walk along chalk lines and gather marbles or toys hidden around the house or the yard.
• Put a routine if possible so that there is some sort of predictability.
• Seeks the attention of caregivers.
• Mostly engages in independent play.

Stimulating activities

• A lot of language stimulation – Respond to infant coos with delighted vocalizations and exaggerated facial expressions and drawn-out vowels to help your child absorb all the sounds of your language. The areas of the brain responsible for understanding speech and producing language need a rich input at this time. Use Pictures and do object labels and animal sounds. I personally recommend one dominant language at a time (a topic to be discussed fully in a separate article on language development).
• Read daily not just at bedtime but encourage a culture of reading even from this early age. Use mostly picture books to point and label animals and objects.
• Play games that involve hands. Activities like letting them to finger feed themselves, put up a puppet show, mud puddle, water painting with hands and feet, anything to engage your baby and capture their attention using their hands and yours. Using your hands shows young child how we physically interact with our world and manipulate objects. At this age they are very sensory and they want to touch or eat everything so just make sure it is very much controlled.
• Sing nursery rhymes or play baby music – a lot of toddlers respond to melody and gets excited, you can sing to her/him or play baby music on a screen. However screen time should never be used to keep child busy on their own but rather a bonding session and language training in songs and limited.
• Set up a play time routine – this help with predictability which in turn brings calm.
• Choose toys that allow your toddler to explore, interact and problem-solve – Toys such as a windup jack-in-the-box, stackable blocks, sensory books, musical toys where you press a button/s to play help your baby learn cause-and-effect relationships and “if-then” reasoning.
• Respond promptly when your baby cries. Soothe, nurture, cuddle, and reassure her/him so that you build positive brain circuitry in the limbic area of the brain, which is involved in emotions. Your calm holding and cuddling, and your day-to-day engagement with your baby, signal emotional security to the brain. This age group are busy bodies and almost cries for anything – don’t hold back on the positive attention as they still don’t understand much and still self-oriented.
• Arrange supervised play with messy materials – this can be on the floor, outside if you have a garden with sand or in the bathroom to play with toys in the water. This will teach your child about the properties of liquids, solids, and mixtures — sensory experiences that are crucial for the learning brain. (Just make sure they don’t eat what they are not supposed to).
• Set up a safe environment for crawling or moving – This age group is very curious and difficult to confine in small spaces so set up a safe environment for this developmental milestone. At this stage your mobile child will begin to understand spatial parameters and vocabulary such as ‘stop’ ‘come’ ‘go’ etc. and the relationship between objects of different shapes and sizes (those that are big versus little, for instance), they will even know the difference between their own environment and new settings. Your toddler will start to establish mental maps of their environment and a comfortable relationship with the world in which they live. So in this lockdown period continue reinforcing home as a safe place.
• Give body massages – This can lower your infant’s stress levels and enhance feelings of well-being and emotional security. Loving touches even promote growth physically and mentally; as much as they are learning independence they still need a lot of physical touch for proper mental adjustment.
• Match your tempo to your child’s temperament – Some children adjust easily to strange situations — some are bold and impulsive, and some are quite shy. Go with the flow and find positive ways of encouraging your child to be comfortable.
• 1 year 6 months – 3yrs developmental milestones
• From this stage roughly your child is advancing from infancy into the preschool years. During this time, his or her physical growth and motor development will slow down, but you can expect to see some tremendous intellectual, social, and emotional changes.
• Because of children’s growing desire to be independent, this stage present what is often called the “terrible twos.” This is both can an exciting and trying time for parents and toddlers. Toddlers will experience huge thinking, learning, social, and emotional changes that will help them to explore their new world, and make sense of it. During this stage, toddlers should be able to follow two- or three-step directions, sort objects by shape and color, imitate the actions of adults and playmates, and express a wide range of emotions.
• Toddler has mastered body balance and walks alone.
• Pulls toys behind when walking.
• Begins to run.
• Can stand on tippy toes.
• Is able to kick a ball around.
• Has pincer grip and will even take pens and colors on scribble on surfaces.
• Language develops dramatically and by age three they are well-spoken and communicates fairly well (with the exception of developmental delays in language).
• Able to imitate the behavior of others.
• Aware of self as a separate entity.
• Enthusiastic about company of other children.
• They learn to initiate play with others.
• Finds objects even when hidden deep (object permanency is fully developed).
• Sorts by shape and color
• Plays make-believe (imaginative play).

Stimulating activities

• You can introduce sight words of objects of interests, animals, places, food anything
  Introduce them to naming body parts and other areas of learning that interest them (counting, sorting etc.).
  Put a quiet time/meditation/prayer in place (or whatever your family subscribes to). This age group has fantastic energy that can be too much to manage as they are still learning impulse control – so put activities to teach self-regulation. Provide guidance and comfort; they still need to experiment and learn freely.
  Play matching games with your toddler, like shape sorting and color matching.
  Encourage your child to explore and try new things – make provision for the curious mind.
  Help to develop your toddler’s language by talking with them and adding to words they start. For example, if your toddler says “water”, you can prompt, “Water please” and continue extending their sentences and vocabulary.
  Encourage your child’s growing independence by letting him help with dressing themselves, feeding self, pack away toys.
  Puzzles are great they stimulate the brain, can even bring calm and help develop problem-solving skills.
  Respond to positive behaviors more than you punish negative ones. Always tell or model to your child what they should do instead.
  Encourage your toddler’s curiosity – be surprised and be amazed at the things they explore or figure out for the first time.
  Lots of reading – Set up a special time to read books with your toddler.
  Encourage your child to take part in pretend play – join in!
  Teach Social Identity – Encourage your child to tell you their name and age or where they live.
  Teach music – Play different kinds of music, or make sounds with your voices and introduce simple instruments like drums or any other instrument that they have interest in. This can encourage dancing and a sense of rhythm.
  If you have a garden, plan more outside activities like cycling, ball games, treasure hunting, etc.
  Give your child attention and praise when she/he follows instructions and shows positive behavior and limit attention for defiant behavior like tantrums. Teach your child acceptable ways to show that they are upset.
  Practice categorization – for example animals versus vegetables, vehicles versus food. Children need to learn about sorting things into categories and seriation (placing things in order; for example, from smallest to largest) as part of their cognitive development.
  Make meals positive – Say the names of foods out loud as your toddler eats. Express pleasure as they learn to feed themselves, no matter how messy the initial attempts may be. This will create pleasant associations with mealtime and eating. Battles and nagging about food, on the other hand, can lead to negative brain patterns.
  Arts and crafts – make time for messy artwork.
  Make time for scribbling and coloring – set materials to encourage scribbling (otherwise, they will scribble on the walls and anything….naturally at this age they are still practicing their pincer grip)
  Provide clear responses to your toddler’s actions – A young, developing brain learns to make sense of the world if you respond to your child’s behavior in predictable, reassuring, and appropriate ways. Be as consistent as possible.
  Model empathic feelings for others – Use teachable moments when someone seems sad or upset to help your toddler learn about feelings, caring, sharing, and kindness. The more brain connections you create for empathic responses and gentle courtesies, the more these brain circuits will be wired in. This helps not only with language and cognitive learning but with positive emotional skills too.
  Encourage positive play with siblings and make time to join in the play.
  Express joy and interest in your toddler’s activities – this positive reinforcement encourages them to explore more and learn more and more importantly it creates positive self-outlook and confidence of your little one.
  Exercise Gross motor skills – Use a large, softball to practise catching, hitting, bouncing and kicking. Start with something small and easy to hold like a little bean bag or tennis ball. When spaces aren’t safe for balls, some rolled-up socks can be good for this. Makeup games that involve different types of movement, for example, get your child to chase bubbles, walk along chalk lines and gather marbles or toys hidden around the house or the yard.
  Put a routine if possible so that there is some sort of predictability.

Talent Adamson

Behaviour Therapist

BA (Health and Social Services) Applied Psychology, BA Hon (HSS) Psychological Counselling – (UNISA)