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Independence and Toddler

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Independence and Toddlers
Kari Wikstrom
ECE 313
Instructor: Catherine Norwood
January 10, 2013

Independence and Toddlers As we all know, a toddler usually is on a constant quest for independence. The behaviors discussed in my text—saying no, exploring, learning self-help skills—all have to do with power and control. Toddlers need to experience power over their surroundings. Using the first scene with “Olivia” under Provide Control from my text, I will try my best to explain how I, as an educator, can and will facilitate the empowerment that Olivia desires. Developmentally appropriate environment for Olivia would be to provide her environment with some freedom for exploration with some, but not a lot of prohibitions. It would be smart to think of the difference when a toddler enters a room made special for them (child proof, games, etc.), verses, hanging out with grandma a dining room, trying to restrain her hands off all the fragile and precious knick knack glass placed all around on a wooden display. Don’t get me wrong, as we all need to know, a toddler definitely needs to learn that there are some things they can’t touch, but if parents understand the toddlers’ need to explore and manipulate objects, they can minimize the lessons to a fewer times when it’s important and spend the rest of the time teaching them that there are many things in the world that they can touch. If a toddlers spend their time in an environment that is appropriate for their age, which allows the child to know that they are a lot freer to investigate and explore. They will not be faced or forced to hear so many no’s. Sometimes the fewer children hear the word, “no”, the less likely it will be that the child will use the word, “no”, vice versa with the word, “yes”. Olivia is at a common age or stage where she is developing, what she enjoys touching, explore, try new and different things out, and utilize her body parts, in order for her to learn about the world around her. Their natural inclination is to climb, push, poke, prod, and perform a huge variety of other movements. They need a safe place to do all of these different things, because it will give Olivia a sense or a place where she is able to feel some kind of power gain. Rather than totally prohibited. It is a good thing that parents see and understand the advantages of a developmentally appropriate environment, especially without your needing to point it out to them. The self help skill demonstrates a specific behavior, which indicates growing autonomy is the push for self-help skills; exactly what Olivia needs for encouragement for her own independence. Our text mentions that the adult who responds to this and to the exploring behavior will determine to some extent of or from the child’s adult behavior. It has been proven that when children are not permitted to try or feel or touch different things when they are exploring their surroundings they then seem to get the wrong message from the adult. I suppose the reason being would be the fact that when and if the child is being held back so often or many times the child can lose their desire of curiosity, or even their desire and willingness to even desire or want to take further risks, which at the same time can steal their inspiration to be or have independency to do task on their own. The best way or idea that I am able to describe or come up with, in order to allow Olivia to feel empowered, would be to set her up a room with several different things to do. Such as a toy register, kitchen, sink to wash (pretend dishes), and so forth; like a play room-just for Olivia. Furthermore, I would like to provide an adequate example of a community resource, which will assist parents with strategies for dealing with children, just like Olivia. The responding adult or immediate adult inclination is naturally to rush in with a lesson on sharing. However, parents must remember it is just a little too soon for the lesson to be meaningful or effective. For example, Olivia is a toddler, who for example is just starting or beginning to get the idea or concept of possession and/or ownership. Olivia is now beginning to see herself as a person with belongings or possessions. She needs to learn and understand that idea fully before she can understand the idea of sharing. She will maintain anger when and if the parent or adult just interrupts the scene and takes the toy away and insist that she share it. Anger and grudges are not involved in the true spirit of sharing, which is the lesson most adults want to get across when they teach the behavior. At this point the conflict between the two children over a toy is more a momentary power issue than anything else, and there are feelings on both sides. An effective way to intervene in this situation is to reflect the feelings of both parties rather than to discuss issues of sharing or fairness. If you get good at handling these kinds of conflicts, you provide a good model for parents who might get a more heavy handed about resolving the situation.

Reference: Hudlemeyer, M. (2008, May 14). “Teaching toddlers to decide”. Retrieved from http://infanttoddlerdevelopment.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_power_to_decide Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2009). Child, family, and community: Family-centered early care and education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. National Association for the Education of Young Children. “Biters: Why they do it and what to do about it”. (1997). Retrieved from http://www.thelaboroflove.com/forum/quality/biter.html

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