Early child development begins with you! Parents play a critical role in their child’s development. Early child development is often identified as the period between birth and five years of age. But a parent’s role in their child’s development will extend for many years beyond as the child matures and becomes an adult.

Little Thinkers programs focus on early child development from 2-5 years of age. The videos are designed to help parents during this critical early child development stage.

Of all the things that influence your child’s growth and development, one of the most important is the reliable, responsive, and sensitive care your child gets from you. You play a key role in your child’s development, along with your child’s intelligence, temperament, outside stresses, and social environment.

Little Thinkers programs are designed to put the parents in charge of their child’s development. Parents can decide which program to play and motivate their children to watch and learn. For further enrichment, parents can play the quiz after each video to see if the children captured the main concepts from the program. Each video includes a discussion from a child psychologist about the specific type of development reviewed in the program. Click here to see a preview.

Responding to your child in an appropriate manner

This guideline may seem obvious, but responding is more than just giving your child attention. The words are actually saying two different things

1. Make sure you’re responding to your child, not reacting;
2. Make sure your response is appropriate, not overblown or out-of-proportion, too casual or minimal, or too late.

Seems easy enough. You “childproof” your house to make sure your crawling baby or toddler can’t get into the cleaning products or electrical outlets. You catch your eight-year-old jumping on the bed and make her stop. You make your 12-year old wear his helmet when he rides his bike, no matter how “dumb” he thinks it makes him look.

But prevention goes beyond just saying “no” or “stop.” There are two parts to prevention:

1. Spotting possible problems
2. Knowing how to work through the problem.

Monitoring your child’s contact with his or her surrounding world.

When your child is young, monitoring seems easy because you are the one making most of the decisions. You decide who cares for your child; you decide what your child watches or listens to; you decide who your child plays with. If something or someone comes in contact with your child, you’re usually one of the first to know.

Parents need to monitor their children’s comings and goings through every age and stage of growth.

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Early Child Development - part 2

More articles of interest:

• Early Child Development
• Language Development
• Bilingual Advantage
• Preschool Coloring Pages
• Toddler Gifts
• Board Books Pronunciations