Children who start preschool with previously developed attitudes and skills can use those skills further in life in their education and other skill development. While some learning skills come naturally, others develop with the support of their parents, peers and environment. For instance, one-year-olds are curious and love exploring the world around them. They use their senses to explore every part of the environment and they enjoy it. Children at that stage find pleasure by playing with different objects and completing basic tasks. They also enjoy sharing their little experiences with parents and they communicate to the adults with gestures and simple sounds. Since their speech skills are still developing, one year olds usually rely on non-verbal physical explanations to achieve simple goals.
Children are persistent to get what they want
They don’t have much choice but ‘’ask for things’’ by doing nonverbal actions or simple speech (for example, they point to the things they want and push the things away when they don’t like them). They focus their attention on a particular sound or scene, and share their experiences with parents, like sitting on their mom’s lap while looking at the album with pictures or flicking through the book. While reading, a child may want to keep a book by itself or turn pages because it’s fun. Also, children express a strong will and desire to complete and perform simple tasks, like putting their dirty clothes in a laundry basket and clapping and laughing after completing the task. At some point, a desire to perform actions related to self-stigma like feeding, dressing up and taking clothes off, or combing their hair also increases. They use their senses to gather the information of the world around them and that’s how they develop thinking and learning skills.
Curious enough to learn
Their desire to learn can be described in following situations. They actively participate in a variety of sensory experiences like tasting, touching, tapping, playing with toys.
They get what they want by pointing to the things they want their parents to hand them. In addition, they have that cute questioning stare, or they simply ask for things using one word only, along with sounds. In the second half of the year, children are able to combine two words to ask a simple question, for example, “What is it?” Or “Who’s coming?”. While examining a toy or an object they show their satisfaction by vocal and physical skills.
Playing with peers is important
Interaction with other children is extremely important. This way, they develop sense of empathy, sharing, they learn how to play in teams and socialize. Whenever you have a spare time, take your children to a playground and let them meet new friends. Interaction helps them shape their personality, reveals their potentials and abilities. Enrolling your child in a kindergarten or a playgroup plays a very important role because children learn how to establish habits, develop motor skills, relationships, and also adopt certain rules of behavior through everyday activities. Every child needs to learn the importance of teamwork, respect for others’ opinions, knowing how to listen and cooperate. During their stay in the kindergarten, children learn new songs, stories, learn about plants, animals, and planet Earth. They learn how to properly hold the pencil, eat, dress up and take their clothes off. All of this stimulates the development of a child’s personality or stimulates some already acquired skills. Children are very curious and eager for new knowledge and when they are given a chance, they like to challenge themselves to see if they can do something and try to show their abilities to others. Many activities in pre-school age are designed to emphasize the importance of teamwork. Children who learned it at an early age will find it easier to fit in later in life.
How they solve problems
They tend to try various physical activities to achieve the goal. When their favourite toy is stuck between the door, children will try to open the door to take it out. Using gestures, they use simple words to seek help when they need it.
Using imagination
Children use items in a new and unexpected way. They like to pretend that certain object is something else like speaking to a remote control as if it was a phone or putting something on their head like it was a hat. Regardless of their age, we should never underestimate the power of small children and their abilities. They are quick learners and we could learn a lot from them as well.
