Even though we communicate with our parents each day, we watch for patterns and trends in terms of their emotional cognitive development. As a result, we may take a period of time to gather information before communicating our evaluation.
These concerns are of particular importance when we observe a toddler not advancing, and in fact, continuing to behave more like an infant.
Case Study
Peter is a particular example, he is twenty months old. He displays delayed verbal skills. He still points or cries to get what he wants, he cannot enunciate even basic words and shows no interest in copying speech.
He cannot entertain himself or even select a toy to play with. He often throws toys instead of trying to figure them out. He displays very little curiosity or persistence to figure out how things work. He is also starting to push the other children, partly because he is frustrated that they do not want to play with him.
Children bring their home behavior to daycare, not the other way around.
We share these circumstances with his parents and they finally admit that he is still on a bottle and is throwing both toys and food at home. He demands that they play with him and is dependent on them for all his tasks.
This is the first time we have heard these statements. In fact, they had stated he was no longer on a bottle and was super independent before he joined our daycare.
Obviously Peter is not going to achieve all the results in terms of his skills and development unless the parents are honest and begin treating him like a twenty month old who is capable of keeping up with friends at our daycare.
They also realize that when they take him to public events or birthday parties, they had noticed that he was not as mature or skilled as most of his friends.
This should be a red flag to any parent.
1.Having Peter still on a bottle is telling him he is still a baby. Also the continued sucking is interfering with his oral muscles which should be developing for speech.
2.They need to become teachers during his home playtime. Give him all the skills development to entertain himself and the time to work challenges out.
3.Assign him simple tasks and encourage him to be independent.
4.Make sure you are verbalizing the correct language for everything he is interacting with.
You want your child to achieve their potential. That will not come totally from their daycare providers. Parents are the most important influence!
Good luck!
