Toddlers
Teachers affect eternity; They can never tell where their influence stops.
TODDLER DEVELOPMENT
The toddler program encourages your child’s natural curiosity in a fun and stimulating learning environment. A good portion of toddler-hood shapes a child’s brain structure in preparation for life long learning.
Mastering new skills such as how to walk, talk, and use the potty are developmental milestones. It is exciting to watch your toddler learn new skills. The normal development of children aged 1-3 includes several areas:
- Gross motor – walking, running, climbing
- Fine motor – feeding themselves, drawing
- Sensory – seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling
- Language – saying single words, then sentences
- Social – playing with others, taking turns, doing fantasy play
DEVELOPMENT THEORIES
A good portion of toddler-hood, shapes a child’s brain structure in preparation for life long learning.
Behavioral child development theories center on how children learn through their interactions with the environment. Early in the twentieth century, the school of thought known as behaviorism took hold in psychology. The behaviorist believed that learning and development were the result of associations, rewards, and assessment.
Two important behavioral processes that influence development are classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning involves forming an association between a previously neutral stimulus and a stimulus that naturally and automatically produces a response. After an association has been formed, the once neutral stimulus now produces the response all in its own.