Understanding the Toddler’s Behavior

 

A toddler is a 12-36 months old child that is undergoing rapid social, emotional, physical and cognitive development. These years of the child’s age are very important because the child is learning to behave as an individual entity, separate from the parents.  These years are very challenging for both the toddler and the parents because

1.     Toddlers are learning language skills in order to communicate their wants and needs

2.     They are unable to understand the logic behind everything

3.     At this age they are unable to wait for the things as they have very little self-control

Due to these reasons, parents and caregivers receive “a big no” more frequently than any other years of the age and this thing makes them frustrated and they started to think that toddlers are getting stubborn. However, that is exactly not the case! Toddlers are trying to understand the world and emotional regulation is very hard for them so it is the responsibility of parents and caregivers to understand their emotions and reasons behind their behavior.

Understanding the Toddler’s behavior

The first step to handle the strong feelings/tantrums is to understand and validate these feelings. You must know that your child is having difficult time in managing his/her emotions if he/she

§       Is throwing away the toys

§       Saying no, to everything

§      Requires just one thing, no substitute for example, just the old green little car and no other toy

§      Prioritizing just one food over others

§      Does not want to go home after spending 2 hours outside

§      Wants to play at 2 am, ah the most frustrating thing ever!

The children learn to manage the emotions when;

§      They start expressing feelings through words to let you know that they are in pain, feeling happy, angry or fearful.

§      Try to use words to ask for help such as to aid them pack their toys or to unwrap their favorite cookies.

§    Try to reassure themselves that the stressful situation is over such as if they experience darkness then by talking to themselves such as that if they experience darkness

Therefore, try to understand your child’s emotion according to their age. In the next article we will learn how to manage these emotions and how to deal with the toddlers in an effective manner.