Positive Actions for Infants and Toddlers

We find ourselves bursting at the seams in the infant room (and rapidly filling in the toddler room). Like many unexpected and negative events, the pandemic has led to a baby boom. When prospective parents call inquiring about a spot for their newborn (or soon to be newborn) and we inform them they can get on our toddler room waiting list for 2023 the shock tends to be palpable. But one nice thing about these booms (which we saw after 9/11 as well) is that it gives us an opportunity to focus messaging and education efforts in certain areas. One of those areas of focus is helping new parents understand some things they can be doing to ensure their child is getting the most developmentally speaking during some very weird times. What follows are some themes to follow with regard to what you can do with your infants and toddlers during specific developmental timeframes. These are themes and not in-depth examples because, honestly, each of these can fill a fairly lengthy document on their own.

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Free Play = Happiness

Free play is something we have endorsed before,. That is – in part – because it is critical to future happiness, emotional development, creativity, social skills, political savvy, curiosity, and self-control. The science is pretty clear on this. Yet it is rare to see children engaged in free play. On the rare occasions where a cluster of children is spotted it tends to be under the supervision of a group leader at one of any number of structured activities. While those activities may be useful in terms of filling in free time, too many of them are detrimental to child development. The outcomes since the early 1980s where the trend toward extracurricular overload began are sad. Increased anxiety and depression are but two of the negative long-term effects. And because of the length and depth of the trend, we are now in an age where many parents never had the chance to enjoy the benefits of free play.

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