Today it is difficult to be a modern parent, as among an abundance of information and advice it is hard to define what is good for your child and what can do harm. In this article, we would like to explain the most widespread problems connected to developing activities for children.
So, a developmental activity for children is any kind of activity directed on improving their knowledge of the world, receiving of new skills and abilities. A newborn human being is a blank sheet, and its development starts after birth. It depends on the parents how this acquaintance to the world will be made.
Here are some of the most widespread mistakes.
Inopportuneness
Unfortunately, many parents hurry. The developmental activities have age frames, and each activity – game or cognitive – has an ideal time for the child. Read about the age suitable for these stages, and then you will be able to avoid such untimely activities. For example, need for communication doesn’t arise earlier than two years, and the tasks requiring assiduity - modeling, drawing, application – shouldn’t last more than five minutes in group, after all kids are very spontaneous and often return their attention to outside objects. A child of any age will oppose an activity he doesn't want to do exactly here and now.
And then many parents make the second mistake -
Enforcement
The more strongly the parent wishes the child to be involved in the activity, the more he persists and enforces it. Manifestation of an adult’s ambitions at early age is especially dangerous – for example when a baby of 5-6 months cries in a heart-breaking manner, while his mother tries to draw a masterpiece with his finger. Please, stop. Even if your child isn’t engaged in any developmental activity, it won't make him worse than others. Every child has a personality, with desires and addictions, even at infantile age, not to mention quite independent two or three-year-old individuals.
When children refuse training, a stage of manipulations and punishments often follows: "we won't go for a walk until you finish the task”, etc. This leads directly to the following problem:
Inexpediency
This mistake is often made because of personal ambitions and a large number of advisers. Many parents try to surprise surrounding adults with their child’s abilities too much. This desire leads to learning words, and mastering unnecessary and even dangerous abilities. Any activity needs a purpose. Correctly define the purpose by asking the question "What is it for?" and circumspectly follow it. Therefore, you shouldn't learn a couple of words in another language just to surprise the grandmothers – go to classes and learn the language so your child can understand foreign movies, understand the plot of children's songs, and so learning a foreign language at school will be easier. Such purposes are justified.
Desire to be in trend
This mistake is a characteristic even of those who don’t make the three mistakes described above. Many young parents are under the influence of advertising and grab any developing technique, such as a new fashionable educational item and system of communication. This is one of the most dangerous mistakes because, as a result, the child can refuse any controlled cognitive activity. Besides, not all modern learning and educational systems are described in a couple of books and ten articles of different sites passed tests by time. If you realize what exactly attracts you in this or that technique and what results you plan to reach with its help - only in this case will you achieve success. In addition, avoid one more unconscious, but very dangerous habit:
Obsession
This is the back side of the previous mistake – some parents find a technique and blindly follow it. Day after day, they organize trainings. Fixing on one technique can do a lot of harm, having substituted the necessary skills with only the several on which this technique is directed! Despite your interest in reading training, don't forget about drawing, retelling by pictures, doing sums in the mind, and about blocks. Don't forget that for the child every day is a new life, and the lost skills and knowledge will come again in a week
It is simple to avoid all the listed mistakes – the main thing is to listen to yourself and your kid attentively, and to do everything with love and desire!
Larisa Chudinova
