Toddlers and Learning

By Shoby Nair

Although toddlers are too young to attend schools, their learning process starts very early from infancy at their homes. Their home, near and dear ones, and the world around them become their classroom. They learn new things every day by dealing with people they come across both at home and outside, and exploring and experimenting with the world and things around them. In this way they learn new things practically all through out their waking hours.

They learn a lot of things through the various activities they perform as children. Toddlers are particularly fond of playing, and it is an important learning activity. Playing is in-fact their most important occupation. Playing teaches them body balance and motor co-ordination, as well as inter-personal relationships and social skills. Playing with playmates teaches them to co-operate and work as team. They also learn to negotiate and settle any challenges, conflicts or problems that might arise during play. Moreover, they learn new things from their senior playmates and also learn to teach their junior playmates. All these skills will be useful to them when they grow up. Both indoor and outdoor games are important.

Apart from playing, hands-on-experience is another important source of learning. Like all children, toddlers like to do many things by themselves and they should be given a chance to do things which are safe, or under your supervision. These experiences will increase their curiosity and capability. Some activities such as brushing the teeth, eating, using a small broom or a toy hammer, wearing clothes, and so forth are safe for toddlers if done in your presence. Additionally, their curiosity can be further stimulated by giving them open-ended materials to play. These materials, such as crayons and papers, building blocks, simple musical instruments, play-dough, and so forth have multi-purpose activities. Toddlers can work on these materials in multiple ways and learn from the experience.

For more Toddler articles visit http://www.alltoddlers.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shoby_Nair