5 ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR THE STAGES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Have you ever wondered, rather than teaching the child academically, the vital thing is to focus on essential skills for the stages of child development?

During this pandemic, as a mom of a 3.5-year-old kid and home-maker surrounded with busy household chores like cooking, cleaning, and laundry, there is also a need to take the role of a teacher.

Like all mommies out there, who are still terrified to send their kids to school, I too came across the same situation, which made me passionate about teaching my kid.

Instead of teaching them theoretically, I was concentrating more on skills required for the stages of child development which will be helpful in their future survival. 

Being a mom, make sure to understand the child, then design activities based on skills needed for the stages of child development, but at the same time, make sure that they are not getting bored.

 As my topic denotes, I would like to reveal these 5 essential skills for the stages of child development  

 

• Fine motor skills
• Language skills
• social skills
• Imagination skills
• Self-regulating skills

It might sound technical, bear with me, but I promise to take you through the step-by-step process without getting bored, with more practical examples which I tried with my kid and which I got a win-win result. 

 Even though teaching, with things used in our house, remains cost-effective, It will be easy for them to get a precise idea about thing’s names and concepts.

Fine motor skills:

Fine motor skills are the coordination of small muscles that a kid can accomplish by grabbing things in hand, for example, a child scribbling, opening things, buttoning, drawing, zipping. 

Difference between fine motor skills and motor skills:

Many of us could get confused between fine motor skills and Motor skills to make it simple

• Fine motor skills involve coordination of small muscles.
• Motor skills involve the coordination of large muscle movements such as crawling, walking, running.

Things to develop a fine motor skill for kids at home are:

• Stacking blocks or paper cups.
• Brushing teeth, hair.
• Using fingers to eat.
• Holding pencil, painting brush & crayons.
• Allowing them to draw where they are comfortable.

Things to develop kids motor skills are:

• Dancing.
• Swinging and spinning.
• Pushing a wheelbarrow.
• Hoping on the numbers or colors on the floor.
• Playing with the ball like kicking, throwing, catching.

Language skills:

 It is a crucial skill that a child acquires from their parents, relatives, friends, etc. Language skills include four things like listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Listening

Involves when a child subconsciously starts observing the words they often hear.

Speaking

when a child eventually tries to repeat the words that they hear.

Reading

when a child can recognize the word on the paper and read it. (which is done, at a later stage)

Writing

It is where a child starts to reproduce symbols, letters on paper.

Things to develop the language skills in kids:

• In my opinion, initially making a child comfortable in their mother tongue can create wonders in a kid’s life.
• Reading a bedtime story can help them come across new words and usage in real life.
• Playing with your kids helps them improve their communication skills.

Social skills:

A social skill is an interaction and communication with others where the social rules are created, communicated, and exchanged in verbal and nonverbal forms. These skills include the following 

• Sharing things.
• Cooperation in an activity they do.
• Patiently listening to what others speak.
• Following instruction.
• Making eye contact when they talk.
• Knowing the manners.
• Respecting others and giving personal space.

Things to be done to develop the social skills for kids :

As a parent, we are our kid’s first teacher. We can make each of the above social skills for kids in our way.

• For instance, if a kid plays with other kids and starts creating issues, join their play,      change the ambiance and let them understand the importance of sharing in their way.
• Allow your kid to play with other kids so that they can acquire the knowledge of adaptability.
• When the kid starts showing tantrums, instead of shouting, relax and stay calm, speak to them with proper eye contact, which solves the problem, and they can also understand how to handle the situation when they are not unable to do it.
• Teach them basic good manners to have in public, start it from your home so they are not new to it and automatically they are used to it in public places.

Imagination skills:

Imagination skills are those skills that come naturally without any force to their minds. It is an idea that sparkles within them, from the things they have heard or understood in their day-to-day activity or lifestyle.

Setting  Zoo for animals with building blocks:

Things to be done for enhancing the imagination skills are:

• Read as many stories as possible based on their interest.
• Join the pretend play game and know more about your child.
• Give them some colors, to do coloring of their choice, never force a kid to color things as they appear in the real world. It is ok to have purple color sun, instead of having a yellow one, which is super cool in their world.

Self-regulating skills:

      It is an ability to manage your emotions and behavior following the demands of the situation. Being a parent, we often get outburst when our children start throwing their tantrums. 

But be patient, as it will get reduced as they grow up, we need to understand as the stages of child development are happening physically and mentally in them, which affects their behavior for a particular period. 

Self-regulating is a skill that a child will start acquiring when their maturity level grows day by day.

Things that we can do to help a child attain self-regulating skills are:

• Responsiveness is a key to this skill. Although children usually tend to be attention seekers, being responsive is very important that we could do even in our busy schedules.
• Keep yourself calm.,
• Discuss with your child about emotions.
• Following the daily routines, without skipping, helps to stay organized, which aids them to differentiate between dos and don’ts, at a specific time.

Based on this article, as a parent or teacher, we must focus on activities that help them attain these skills for stages of child development.

These life skills make a kid stronger, confident both physically and mentally as it is not considered a short time achievement but will help them in the long run as they grow in each stage of their life. 

I’m Asha nirmala, mom of a 3.5-year-old baby girl. To get more activity ideas based on the skills essential for stages of child development, you can follow me on my Instagram @ashanirmala.co

You can also find more workbooks for your kids based on their age in forthcoming days. 

Come on mommies 👩‍👧 what are you waiting for? 

Join my community as we can grow stronger together in raising our kids. 

Enjoy reading the blog post on 33 Indoor activities for kids at home.

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