A 14 Month Old In Action!

Geoffrey joined us when he was 14 months old. He lived next to a family whose two children attended our day care.

From the time his parents knew they were expecting, they were intrigued and impressed with the approach their neighbors took with their children as well as the children’s skills and behavior.

Somewhere in the process they were introduced to ourparenting book and were able to apply our philosophy and guidelines specifically to their goals and life style.

Geoffrey’s parents were determined and committed to having him attend our daycare and would periodically visit so that we could fall in love with him and he would be familiar with us and the environment.

We were finally able to have him join when he was just turning 14 months.

We discovered Geoffrey was amazing, strong willed, independent, confident and skilled. He already had basic language skills (probably 20 to 25 words) entertained himself, was very social and flexible.

He quickly caught on to the routine, is slowing grasping and applying the roles, and getting to know the other children.

He listens exceptionally well for his age and we are spending time with him to improve his play skills and his attention span.

Two situations stand out in my mind.

First-At the beginning he was crying when he arrived at the day care door. He was being carried and suddenly put down in his new environment. After a few days I explained that it would be easier for him to make the transition if they did it earlier in the arrival process.

I gave the mom three options:

1)      Put him down at the gate about 20 feet from the day care door and let him walk.

2)      Put him down at the stair landing and walk down the rest of the way holding his hand.

3)      Teach him how to crawl backwards down the stairs and then walk in himself.

Amazing but not totally surprising, the mom elected to go with option 3, the most demanding of them all.

The next day I heard her arriving and noticed that she had stopped on the landing. She was too far for me to hear her, but obviously she was explaining to him what she expected him to do.

After 10 to 12 minutes I see him get down on his knees and begin the challenge of climbing backward down the stairs. She immediately moves down to be lower than he was in case of a misstep. When he arrived at the bottom he practically ran to the day care door without even look back. He has being doing that ever since.

The other incident involved a routine we have after naptime. The children sleep on cots, blankets are placed over them usually after they settle in. Then they have the responsibility when they wake up to take the blanket and put it into the blanket box.

Geoffrey’s cot is next to the blanket box so he usually crawls off the cot (it is 6” off the floor) and pulls the blanket with him and into the box.

This particular day he woke up very quickly and for a few seconds I was encouraging him to allow his body to be really awake. At the same time he was reaching for the blanket, stood up on the cot, pushed the blanket into the box and then walked on the cot to the end, hesitated for a few seconds, seeming to evaluate and measure his skills against the risks and then stepped off safely. The pleasure on his face resembled that of an athlete standing on the high dive and successfully calculating his ability to make that triple twist.

The best part of this case study is that Geoffrey’s parents, by reading our parenting book to educate themselves, respecting their child and applying the good examples they were witnessing with their neighbors are seeing fruits of their labor.

Their perspective is that when they truly understand how intelligent he was from day one, it changed their entire relationship with him.

We can hardly wait to see what he will do tomorrow. His entire team, parents, teachers, and neighbors are on board to help him achieve his maximum potential. How exciting!    

For more case studies and parenting advice you can purchase Smart Parent/Smart Child on Amazon!