The “sensitive periods”
This formula is from Maria Montessori. This is the age when the child is most comfortable learning something new. There is a sensitive period for all acquisitions: walking, speaking, like, later, reading and arithmetic. This is particularly true for language: without any effort, the child learns his mother tongue. As an adult, it will take him years to learn, with effort, a foreign language that he will rarely speak as well as his mother tongue. These sensitive periods are very rich. We understand that Myriam David (French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist) qualified them as “fruitful periods”, that Jean Piaget called them “stages” of development, René Spitz “organizing moments” and that TB Brazelton spoke of “strong points”. “. During these stages, the child will organize his achievements and enrich them. It can be said of the passage from vocalizations to syllables: the latter are not the sum of them but lead to constituted language. Or the permanence of people and objects: the child knows that they exist even if he does not see them and will now constantly “exercise” to make them appear and disappear.
As for walking, it incorporates head support, plantar support, standing with support, then the ability to switch from one support to another. However, it is not only the sum of all this: it is a superior organization which will create a new stage in the child’s life. As Jean Piaget says: “What seems essential to me in the stages is not the chronological ages, it is the necessary successions: you have to have gone through such and such a stage to reach such another”. We understand better that nothing is useful to upset this succession and to make the child jump precious steps of the staircase of his acquisitions, so many sensitive periods of his development. But be careful, as long as the achievements are not completely mastered by the child, they are fragile, and at the slightest failure the child can give up and regress to a more comfortable stage.. Let him consolidate that “foundation” and his self-confidence, then encourage him when he starts again.
Learning to walk
Learning to walk
Learning to walk means first learning balance, then knowing how to move forward. This is not without its difficulties. Do not pick up your child every time he falls; the effort he makes to stand up strengthens his muscles. In addition, he does not fall from a height, and if he does not bump, he does not hurt himself. He falls, he stands up, leaning on his hands, he falls back. It is an apprenticeship, like all the others. To learn to speak, he will also repeat the same syllables over and over again, as if to know how to grasp, he has spent weeks practicing. What will help your child is that you understand their efforts without intervening in everything. A child needs to prove to himself what he is capable of, it gives him partner.
The trotters …
Their goal is to prepare walking. We don’t do not advise them because they deprive children of the pleasure of learning and of the effort to be made. It should also be noted that they can be dangerous (they are prohibited in Canada).
A good way to facilitate learning to walk is to let the child push his stroller in the garden, a chair at home. There are also toys that he can push, such as small carts. And when he begins to walk, hold him alternately with one hand and the other to ensure his balance.
To the nursery, the children are also stimulated: they have a variety of equipment at their disposal, small ladders, small tables, they want to imitate the older ones they see evolving around them, without being in a hurry by the auxiliaries who know that everyone will walk at their own time.
Warning !
12-18 months: it is a “motor” stage for all children. If your child does not walk at 18-20 months, talk to the doctor. Some parents say that their child is “lazy”, lets himself go. No. When a child is not walking at this age, it is important to find the cause of the delay.
Walking will transform your child
Until then, he was completely dependent on those around him, now without asking anything from anyone, he is able to go and see what interests him, what intrigues him, and thus make a thousand discoveries and experiences every day. . He becomes a restless, active, incredibly busy character, never tired. By walking your child will really realize that he can conquer space well beyond what the “four legs” allowed him: he realizes that in his turn he can reach, because he is standing, which was then only accessible to adults. In the awareness of his body, walking is a new important step. When the child has small falls, hits a piece of furniture, this experience of pain makes him aware of his limits and dangers: at 18 months, he makes a detour to avoid the table which could hurt him, or the radiator which is hot. Thus, having made experiments relating to his body, he will be interested in it more and more: around 18 months-2 years, if he sees a small button on his arm, he looks at it frequently, he seems intrigued, hence the magical effect of the bandage that “glues” the pieces. But if the pimple dries and the skin peels, the child cries, it feels like part of himself is leaving. He is also worried about a scratch, a drop of blood, and it is important that those around him, without going so far as to ignore them, de-dramatize these small incidents.
This article is taken from the book “.
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