Toddler Program

In discussions of toddler development, there are typically five primary areas of focus:

1. Cognitive Skills: This encompasses thinking abilities, following instructions, attention span, grasping basic concepts like shapes and numbers, sequencing, and visual-spatial perception
2. Motor Development: a) Gross Motor Skills: These involve activities such as walking, running, riding a tricycle, kicking a ball, jumping, climbing stairs, and developing balance and coordination. b) Fine Motor Skills: These are the skills involving the use of small muscles in the hands, fingers, and wrists, which are important for activities such as writing, drawing, and manipulating small objects.
3. Speech and Communication: a) Vocabulary: By the age of two, a child is expected to have a vocabulary of around 60 words, increasing to at least 250 words by the age of three. b) Sentence Structure: By the age of three, a child should be able to construct sentences with around 5-6 words. c) Nonverbal Communication: This includes efforts to communicate needs through gestures and expressions.
4. Social-Emotional Development: a) Social Skills: These include behaviors like sharing, greeting others, and engaging in social play. b) Emotional Development: This involves the expression and understanding of emotions, as well as the development of coping strategies.
5. Self-Help Skills: These are basic skills that toddlers are encouraged to develop, including:
   • Feeding themselves
   • Basic food preparation
   • Drinking from a cup
   • Pouring from a jug
   • Dressing and undressing themselves (including shoes and socks)
   • Wiping surfaces
   • Washing their own hands and face
   • Packing away toys