Try:

  • Recognize when your children are ready to explore and try things on their own.  
  •  Encourage the children to explore on their own in a safe environment. This will help them to trust and be a little more courageous.  
  • Nurture the good points and guide them through the difficult ones.
  • Be loving and warm toward the children while being an example of positivity and good control of emotions. 
  • Let the children make small choices. 
More:

  1. Offer Choices: Give your toddler simple choices. For example, ask them if they'd like to wear the green shirt or the purple shirt. This helps them feel like they have some control.
  2. Encourage Self-Help: Allow your toddler to do things for themselves, even if it takes a little longer. Let them try to put on their own shoes or feed themselves, and offer assistance when needed.
  3. Set Up a Safe Environment: Make sure your home is childproofed so that your toddler can explore without too much worry. This will give them the freedom to move around and learn.
  4. Praise Efforts: Encourage your toddler's attempts, even if they don't get it quite right. Praise them for trying and making an effort.
  5. Teach Problem-Solving: Help your toddler learn how to solve simple problems on their own. For example, if they can't reach a toy, ask them what they can do to get it rather than immediately doing it for them.
  6. Be Patient: Toddlers can be slow and sometimes messy when trying to do things on their own. Be patient and let them learn at their own pace.


A story: 

Here is a story that taught me a lot about the importance of giving the children choices: when my daughter was very young and still unable to talk or crawl, I showed her 2 dresses - while she was laying down on the bed. I put one forward and asked if she wanted that one- she just looked at it. I put forward the other one and she got super excited smiling and moving her arms and legs very fast. I did not believe what I was seeing so I did it again and got the same reaction - she got excited about one dress but not the other one. To be sure I was not seeing things I said “Ok! You are going to wear this one today!” choosing the one she was not excited about. She started crying! So, said I was just kidding and picked her favorite dress for the day. She was very happy about that. It is amazing how much a baby can feel and know before they can even start crawling!