The Importance of Early Childhood Development
Early childhood development is important in learning everything in life. When your child has been diagnosed with a learning disability, a parent may feel frustrated and down because they feel that their child will struggle. In reality the child will struggle if they are not placed in a positive learning environment.
Early childhood development begins before your baby is even born. While still in the womb, a child learns to love unconditionally, thrive, and survive. A baby may suck their thumb or develop personality traits that are seen as they get older.
Early childhood development includes simple milestones that your baby must exhibit in order to show progress. These milestones include rolling over, smiling for the first time, speaking their first words, sitting up, crawling, and eventually walking. As they grow so does their vocabulary which in turn leads to more childhood developments. They learn to put the words together in order to form sentences that can be used to get attention or to meet demands.
There are many different milestones to accomplish and not every child will accomplish them in the same way. For example, some children learn to sit up, then crawl, and eventually walk. However some children do not crawl at all but can learn to stand. Or some children will scoot on their bottoms instead of crawling and eventually walking. Early childhood development is different for every child. If a child suffers from a learning disability, he or she will still be able to learn but in a different way, their own way. This may take a few weeks to determine what exactly is best for the child and how to strengthen the development from there. Sometimes it is based on trial and error and other times it is based on research.
If you are teaching your child at home, you will have the opportunity to pay close attention to your child’s learning and will know more about what your child is capable of. You will also learn where their weaknesses are and where their strengths are; spelling, science, math, or art. When a child becomes of school age, he or she will continue to experience early childhood development that their teacher can work on as they grow. The teacher can strengthen skills and you can enhance them once your child returns home.
Early childhood development can be challenging at times but can always end up with a positive result when parents and teachers work together with their child to succeed. Each milestone is a huge accomplishment and needs to be acknowledged as such in order for the child to mentally mark that milestone complete and move on. Work on a reward system that will give your child something to work for. Have a chart placed on the refrigerator that will guide them in every step. Also allow yourself to assist you in creating a reward system for achieving accomplishments, but be careful not to make the bar too high. Encouragement and motivation are important aspects of the learning.
