Child Development Strategies

No words on earth can explain the happiness and the elated feeling of a mother, to feel her baby growing inside her. When the little one emerges from a single cell to a complete human, after nine months, the mom becomes simply euphoric. For her, the first few years of parenting are filled with exhilaration, as this is the stage when she witnesses the development of her child, in terms of language, communication, social skills and growth in the physical and mental levels. With some of the inborn capacities like the ability to recognize touch, reflex actions, the infant grows in many other dimensions, when he/she is nourished by his/her parent. Some of the strategies of child development are given below.

The communication skills in infants develop with time. Their communication skills typically include the use of words, development of vocabulary and the ability to attach meanings to specific words. Initially, they learn to communicate non-verbally, through touch, eye contact and gestures. They recognize the touch of their mother first, and then go on to explore others around them. The babies start to develop eye contact as well, with time. Hand gestures are learnt by them later on.

One of the milestones in the little ones' life is the ability to communicate through words. In the first few months post birth, the infants babble. They are able to speak the first few words like 'mama' and 'papa', when they are 11 to 14 months old. Slowly, the babies pick up the words that are taught to them and try to imitate the 'sounds' listened by them. They start to speak in complete sentences, when they are 18 - 24 months old. However, the parents should know that no all the children attain the language milestone at the same age. The language learning pattern differs from infant to infant.

With the ability to organize words, communicate orally and the growth of memory, the babies become more and more active. In fact, the toddlers become hyperactive at this stage of development, when they have graduated from merely babbling words to speaking words clearly. They might be a big 'question mark' for their parents and caretaker. At this stage of development, they tend to ask questions, both relevant and irrelevant to them, to their elder ones. They become very curious about knowing anything and everything surrounding them. They try to explore the world. The little ones are keen about learning everything, within a short span of attention. As they grow up, the ability to concentrate increases considerably.

With the growing age, the children start interacting with the rest of the world, Apart from their parents and elder ones in the family. Their ability to socialize with others develops, when they get an opportunity to interact with other children. At times, they become cheerful, calm, while at other instances, they could be very restless. They make use of their facial expressions to convey their feelings to others. The body language of the infants is another way to convey what they want to express. The development of a child depends upon how they are nurtured, apart from their interaction with the rest of the world.

Communication Skills
Baby's first complete sentence can give you a thrill and become one of the most unforgettable moments in your life, just like the time when children roll over for the first time or touch and play with their toes for the first time and the first time they utter their first words. Babyhood is the time when children are curious about everything and are experimenting with everything.

Controlling Active Babies
Active toddlers can be quite a handful at times. It is not at all possible for children sit quietly all the time. In fact, most of the babies are hyperactive in the initial years. They are also very curious and try to poke their noses at the most unexpected places in your home. They try to explore new things every now and then and in the process, get hurt easily, even in the most baby-proofed homes too.

Hide & Seek
At about eight months, children start understanding that things and people exist even when they are not in direct line of sight. They may toss a toy on the floor and then stoop down to see where it falls. They take more interest in looking around and trying to find a thing or a person after they have left their place, perhaps just to be hidden from the baby. They start developing object permanence.

Language Milestones
Every child has a unique language development pattern so the parents should not worry too much about their children not following the growth chart as they had expected or should not think that their child can become a child prodigy just because he achieved some language milestones quicker than what have been reflected in charts.

Developing People's Skills
Babies start socializing even before they are born. While in the womb, they listen intently to your voice and know it to be yours and can recognize as being different from others. Their first smiles and constantly changing facial expressions are a practice to what comes next in social interaction.

Promoting Language Skills
All babies are born with an extraordinary ability to learn languages, pattern of sounds and associate them to the meaning attributed to them by their parents. The process of language learning begins when the child is still in the womb. From the seventh month of pregnancy when children develop hearing skills, they listen intently to all the conversations that their mothers have or the people around her have.