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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Praise Efforts: Encourage your toddler's attempts, even if they don't get it quite right. Praise them for trying and making an effort.
- 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.
- 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!
