Parenting Tips For Young Children

No amount of practice or pressure on children will help develop certain qualities until a certain degree of maturity has been reached. Training, given before an appropriate maturation level, produces either temporary results or no results at all.

This is explained by the observation that children who have been given toilet training at too early an age will regress. Training given before maturation may do more harm than good if it frustrates the child. There are of course border line instances that involve maturation and learning in about equal amounts; learning to talk is such an example.

It is also noteworthy that there are some behaviors that never will appear by maturation alone, among them the skills of reading and working mathematical problems. It is here that maturation plays a role by producing readiness. Readiness for academic pursuits tends to appear on an average at a characteristic age in human beings. The second year is the time for speech to begin and under proper conditions, the age of six is the correct for the acquisition of reading ability. Of course, we need to remind ourselves that in many abilities there are both, "early bloomers" and "late bloomers" who will not fit into the average pattern. All people will not mature at the same rate and it is important to remember this.

Though predictions of what to expect at various age levels are useful, they are rough guides only. Moreover, we need to remind ourselves that a child may be making much developmental progress that at times goes unnoticed. For example, the bleary-eyed newborn infant may well be doing more than just digesting his milk. So also the four year old may be processing a lot of thought. We know from experience that early perceptions and social contacts can influence late behavior. Further more, "early and "late" bloomers may not be just the result of maturation, because such factors as motivation and environmental opportunity also play a role in readiness.

Neither physical nor mental development of children is completely predictable. Special training can bring on development in some activity that might otherwise lag behind. And personality, which at one time was believed to bloom late, appears noticeably before a year of age, at least in a directional sense, such as being impulsive or reflective, aggressive or easy going.

Children can learn certain things earlier than conventionally expected. For example, a study of a large number of children of all ability ranges has led to the conclusion that reading instruction should commence in kindergarten rather than first grade. Teaching children to read earlier favorably influences achievement in other subjects. There is growing evidence that the first four or five years of life are the formative years of basic learning.