Building Developmental Skills at Home
Children are constantly noticing and experimenting with the information that comes their way. No matter what they do, they are learning!
The examples below include developmental skills fostered by the activities:
Give simple, appropriate tasks – putting crayons back in the box; folding washcloths. (Self-regulation, fine motor)
Practice self-help skills such as zipping, buttoning, keeping up with personal items, opening packages of food. (Self-confidence, hand-eye coordination)
Establish routines with your child and help him follow them – putting his backpack in a certain spot; setting the table; consistent order of bedtime steps. (Self-control; cooperation)
Give opportunities to ask for help. The confidence to speak up and ask a question is a valuable learning skill. (Social competence, language development)
Count just to be counting – at bedtime, buckling up, watching it rain. (Counting skills)
Measure your child’s and a friend’s height. Compare heights. (Measurements, fractions, greater/smaller, number recognition)
Help your child practice patience – to wait for a person to finish speaking before she begins, to say “excuse me.” (Conversation, self-control, vocabulary)
Look for ways to develop hand strength and coordination for prewriting and writing. Examples: playdoh, beading with pipe cleaner, scissors cutting, building with Legos, finger drawing on a tray of cornmeal.
Read to your child. Point out the title, author and illustrator. Ask open-ended questions about story. Let your child retell the story. Discuss new vocabulary. (Reading motivation; comprehension; book awareness)
Play rhyming games. Sing nursery rhymes or play silly word games in which you change the beginning sounds of word. (Phonological & phonemic awareness)
Ask your child to sort the laundry – matching socks, separating clothing by ownership. (Classification, patterns, self-reliance, matching)
Encourage your child to describe people, places, things and actions. (Vocabulary & communication skills, self-esteem, self-confidence)