3 top tips for understanding toddler behaviour
‘When my baby gets bigger he can play with me. But he can’t snatch.’
Three-year-old Baby Girl is quickly learning the rules of play, and keeps talking about how her baby should behave when he gets bigger. I have a feeling she might be a tad disappointed with him when he becomes a toddler and she realises he may not listen to her brilliant advice on sharing and snatching at first.
There’s a reason for why little ones don’t always meet Baby Girl’s new expectations, however, and to better understand toddlers, here are three truths about toddlers from parenting expert Melissa Hood of The Parent Practice:
1. Toddlers don’t like being away from carers
Toddlers can often be clingy with adults and many develop comfort objects to help them move out into the world.
To help, parents can cuddle them, empathise and describe how they might be feeling
2. Toddlers can be stubborn and change their minds frequently
Toddlers can be absolutely adamant about one thing and then take the opposite position at the blink of an eye
To help, parents should remember the best way to get better at making choices or decisions is to practise and give them simple choices whenever appropriate. One example would be to ask: ‘Do you want the Peppa or the Maisy plate?’
3. Toddlers are egocentric
Toddlers can only see the world from their own perspective and think the world is designed to meet their own needs, so they can’t share well and are likely to interrupt, nag and have tantrums when they don’t get their way.
To help, parents need to stay calm and remember it is age appropriate behaviour. They will not be selfish adults! Parents can teach toddlers hand signals to show they need to talk to them and parents can use them too, so they
know they have been noticed. This can give parents
just enough time to find a break in the
conversation, and avoid going: “Stop it, wait, please, can’t
you see I’m talking?”
The Parent Practice offers parenting courses in South West London and an online parenting course. As Mummy in the City is an affiliate member of The Parent Practice, readers can click HERE for a 20% discount
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