Teaching independence skills
Independence
skills are the daily life and self-care tasks children acquire that
allow them to do things for themselves. The acquisition of these skills
is not just helpful to parents — as there’s one less task for them to do
— but they’re also critical to building children’s self-esteem. Our
kids need to be encouraged from a young age to try new things and to
know it’s okay to make mistakes. Just as toddlers fall many times before
they learn to walk, it also takes time for them to learn new skills.
Toddlers will pick up
some independence skills — such as walking — by themselves. However,
other skills can only be learned with your help and support. Being aware
of which skills are appropriate to teach at what age can be useful
towards ensuring your toddler is successful in learning each new skill
without too much frustration.
Toddler independence skills list
Table 1 lists
age-appropriate independence skills for toddlers. The skills and
associated ages in the table are only examples: if your toddler isn’t
able to perform the skills at the ages shown, it doesn’t mean there’s a
problem. To use the walking analogy: some kids learn when they’re nine
months old; others learn when they’re 18 months old.
Table 1 is not a complete list, but it covers the major skills for the toddler age groups.
Table 1: independence skills for toddlers
Routines for toddlers
No
two toddlers have the same routine, but as a parent I often like to
look at other toddlers’ routines to see whether I can pick up ideas and
inspiration.
Daily routine
It’s
with this inspiration and the ideas I picked up that I share my daily
routine for a toddler with you in table 2. This is what a typical day
looked like when my youngest child was 22 months old. Naturally, this
wasn’t followed to exact times each day (for all sorts of reasons), but
it’s the basic structure we used when caring for our baby.
Each
school term I put together a children’s timetable for the school kids
and the preschooler. When I’m doing this, I also write up a simple
timetable for our toddler. I don’t stick rigidly to this, but it reminds
me of the age-appropriate activities I can do with him. Sometimes my
days just flash by.
Table 2: daily routine for a toddler
