BRAIN WONDERS 12-18 months                This period in your child's development will bring a new series of milestones in a number of areas including movement, language, feeding and overall independence. While these changes may bring some struggles, they are also markers of your toddler's blossoming maturity.                By 12 months, an area of the brain called the hippocampus (also referred to as the seat of memory) has matured enough that it is possible for toddlers to recall actions and events that occurred a few hours or even a day earlier. Within the 12-18 month range, this ability to recall another person's earlier action and repeat it some time later (referred to as "deferred imitation") becomes well established.               This means that young toddlers have the potential to learn from what they have seen others do. You may demonstrate the use of a particular toy such as blowing a whistle or placing a peg in a hole. While your toddler may not repeat the action immediately, she may display it in some form at a later time in the day or week.               Toddlers like to repeat complex actions over and over again. They never tire of hearing a good story or throwing a ball. These repetitive experiences likely strengthen the connections in the underlying neural circuits-motor, sensory, language, and so forth-making it easier and easier for the child to throw the ball or understand the story with each repetition. Repetition allows children to pay attention to what is new, perhaps increasing the complexity of the information they can process. As their connections or synapses grow stronger, these frequently used pathways probably become easier to access, and so the child expends less effort with each attempt.                The best type of learning environment for young toddlers is one that allows them to explore and play in a safe, responsive setting. Young toddlers do not require formal "teaching" in order to develop memory or thinking skills. They need you to listen attentively, talk with them during routines, and be sensitive to the types of activities that engage their attention and hold their interest.                Around 12 months of age, toddlers begin to think in more complex ways. They will spend time using objects as tools -- for example, using a stick to try to get an out-of-reach toy. Toddlers are aware that if they pull on a string the attached toy will come along, which makes pull toys very popular for this age. Toddlers will also begin to experiment with objects to see what they can do. For example, they will throw a ball to the ground and see that it bounces, then throw a doll to see what it will do.              You can support developing thinking and problem solving skills by expressing an interest and following their lead in play and activities. Provide opportunities to engage in play with interesting and challenging materials--objects that encourage young toddlers to manipulate, interact, or figure something out -- such as blocks, puzzles, water and sand play, and props for dramatic play. Be careful, however, not to overload the play environment with too many toys or activities. Keep some put away and rotate what they play with periodically. You will present a greater challenge (and create greater excitement) when you add some new activities or toys that they haven't explored in a while. What's Going On:Motor Coordination               Walking is one of the most exciting events in early life for both young toddlers and their parents. While it may mark the start of the transition from infancy to young toddlerhood, a baby's first steps are just the beginning of a complex motor skill that continues to develop throughout the second year of life. As babies take those first steps, you may notice a stiffness and clumsiness to their walking movements: they lift their knees high and step down with the front part of the foot hitting the ground first.               By two years of age, however, you will notice that they begin to step more smoothly, landing first with the heel and moving to the toe. Their footstep or stride becomes much more coordinated and they are able to more easily navigate around-instead of tripping over-obstacles in their path. This improved ease and coordination of step is influenced in part by the continuing myelination of the brain's motor pathways.                         Myelin is a dense, fatty substance that helps neurons send and receive messages faster and more clearly, so that motor circuits in both the brain and spinal cord gradually become better at controlling and coordinating the movements necessary for walking. While this maturation is important, a young toddler's coordination and smoothness of step is also influenced by practice.              Practice helps strengthen muscles and improve the sense of balance. So while it is not necessary to "teach" toddlers to walk, it is important to provide lots of opportunity for young toddlers to practice their walking skills. The on-going maturation of motor pathways in the brain and spinal cord, along with the opportunity to exercise and practice these developing motor skills will do the job for you and your young toddler. The seriousness with which toddlers approach such complex motor tasks as running, climbing stairs, and getting in and out/off of furniture demonstrates their push to master these new, more complex action patterns. They also need to test out these skills in new situations.              Although the toddler may have mastered climbing onto the chair at home, he will still have to practice the skill at his cousin's house or in the restaurant. Running on grass is different from running on carpet and the action will be repeated in many different settings, even those that are not appropriate for running such as a parking lot or in the grocery store. Practicing skills that will improve coordination requires space to move about. Open space that is free of objects with sharp edges, such as tables and toy or book shelves, provides a safe environment in which your young toddler can practice her developing coordination and gross motor skills.  What You Can Do: Motor Coordination · Take walks with your young toddler. Stop to examine the interesting things she sees along the way. · Provide a variety of toys that can be pushed and pulled, such as toy shopping carts, doll strollers, or small wagons, and riding toys that can be propelled with the feet. · Provide objects or toys that allow her to fill, dump, or stack. · Provide plenty of safe low places for climbing under, over, inside of, on top of, and around. · Place some of her favorite toys in different parts of the room and ask her to bring the toys back to you. · Set up a big basket of objects to be dumped and carried about. · Toddlers like to practice their new skills in a variety of settings - in the yard, on the playground, on the stairs to the child care center, or at Grandma's house. They have an enormous tolerance for repetition, even when adults have long tired of the activity. · Acknowledge how hard your child is working to master new tasks and how proud you are of her efforts. Young children develop a positive self-image through their interactions with the environment and through relationships with the adults who care for them. Recognizing how hard a child is striving to learn adds to her sense of who she is - a learner who can succeed with practice and hard work. · You may have ambivalent feelings as your once dependent baby demonstrates her growing independence by literally walking away from you. It is natural to have concerns about your baby "not needing you" as much anymore now that she can get what she wants by herself. Be reassured that she still needs your care, nurturance, and support as she moves into toddlerhood. What's Going On:Language Development             Speech is an important form of stimulation for young toddlers. It sets into action hearing, language and social/emotional centers of the brain all at once. By twelve months, the brain is already "wired-in" to a toddler's native language. That is, it can detect native speech sounds much better than those from a foreign language. Although the human brain is prepared from birth to learn language, the particular words and language a toddler masters depend completely on the actual speech he hears-especially the words that are spoken directly to him. Between 13 and 20 months a toddler's brain becomes ever more focused or specialized in the way it responds to words. This change allows speech to be processed more rapidly and thus makes it possible for young toddlers to better understand what is being said to them.                 This process of hearing words and understanding their meaning is called receptive language. In contrast, the process of speaking is called expressive language. Do not be concerned by the fact that your young toddler may not yet be saying a lot of words. At this age, it is natural for young toddlers to understand much more of what is being said to them than they are yet able to say on their own. Watch for non-verbal signs that he understands you, such as pointing at or toddling towards a ball while you ask him, "Where's the ball?"                 Beginning around 12 months of age those streams of babbling you have been listening to gradually transform into your young toddler's first "words." As you listen, his vocalizations may sound like an adult's in terms of the rise and fall of his tone of voice, yet you may have difficulty identifying the specific words that he is saying. As you begin to understand those first spoken words, you will find that they usually involve the name of a person, object, or action. They may include social expressions such as "hi" and "bye-bye", or the infamous "no".               By approximately 18-20 months, young toddlers may be speaking anywhere from 20-50 words, with an explosion of words soon to follow. What an accomplishment! It is important to remember that some young toddlers may say no words at all before 18 months. Indeed, young toddlers can be very different in terms of when they speak their first words, put two words together, and begin to speak in sentences. This difference is normal, and is not a sign of the amount of language each child understands. By talking with your young toddler, you are supporting not only his rapidly developing communication and thinking skills, but also his sense of self.                Through practice, he becomes aware of the power of language to both gather information and communicate his needs. Conversing with toddlers is not always easy. Sometimes you need to act as if he is your peer. This means that even if you do not always understand what he is saying, you can listen, make eye contact, and respond as best you can. This will give him the message that what he has to say is important, and it will encourage him to continue communicating. Indeed, your conversations will help him continue to develop both his receptive and expressive language skills. Research suggests that talking with toddlers influences the growth of vocabulary. The more words a toddler hears while engaged in "conversations" with his parents and care providers, the larger his vocabulary will be and the faster it will continue to grow. It is important to understand that listening to the T.V., or to your conversations with other adults will not do the job.                Language must be responsive to the interests of the toddler. Language learning at this age is based on the repetition of sounds and words. Toddlers at this age often point to objects and/or ask some variation of "wha dat?" in their desire to learn the names of objects. They delight in simple songs, finger plays and games involving sounds and words. Learning to name an object gives the toddler enormous power to get what she wants. Toddlers often practice new words or phrases before falling off to sleep or while riding in the car, repeating words over and over again.  What You Can Do: Language Development · Physically get down on your toddler's eye level as opposed to looking down at him. Make eye contact when talking. Place yourself face to face with him. · Talk about and describe the things he sees and hears in the world around him. · Talk about what he is doing as he does it. For example, "Good work - you are making that truck go!" or "What a big girl -- you are eating your macaroni." · Talk about what you are doing such as, "Daddy's helping his big boy work on the puzzle." · Try to figure out what he is saying. Listen to his tone of voice: Is he asking a question, stating a command or voicing a protest? Watch him as he tries to speak: Is he pointing to something? What is he looking at? These are clues to the meaning of his expressive language. His intonations, pointing, and gestures are letting you know he wants to talk, to tell you something. He's looking for your response. · When he gets older, you can begin asking him to use words - instead of hitting or taking another's toy - to express himself. Your conversations with him now will help him later learn how to put those feelings and needs into words. · Toddlers love repetition. Repeat favorite songs, rhymes, and stories. · Show your interest and excitement at your toddler's attempts to communicate. · Use every opportunity to label objects and events for your child - in the grocery store, as you drive or ride on the bus, while you look at picture books - name the things he is seeing. Point out trucks of different colors or sizes, label those foods that your child is familiar with as you put them in the shopping cart. Narrate daily events such as the steps in changing a diaper or taking a bath. Your child will repeat these words, each time becoming more proficient at using and pronouncing the correct word. In addition, expand on what your toddler is saying by labeling actions, feelings, and so on. Relationships and EmotionsWhat's Going On:Behavior                  This period in development can bring lots of frustration for toddlers. It can stem from the fact that they are still developing language skills and thus may have a hard time expressing their needs, desires, and emotions, or from not being able to do or have something they want. As a parent, it is important to try to understand the immature yet developing behaviors the toddler is using to deal with her very strong emotions. The 12-18 month period is a time when inhibition (controlling one's own behavior) is just beginning to take hold. For example, even when the toddler "knows" that biting a friend is unacceptable, she may not be able to override the initial desire to bite. Toddlers are notoriously poor at controlling (inhibiting) their impulses. This inhibition is probably a function of the brain's frontal lobes, which undergo a great deal of maturation during the 12-18 month period. Although it is still difficult for them, toward the end of this period, toddlers can begin to learn to control some of their socially unacceptable behaviors (such as biting, hitting, and screaming) when they are consistently shown how to do so. (e.g., "No Tommy, you can't hit Joe, but you can tell him that you don't like it when he takes your toy.")                 Toddlers can sometimes restrain themselves when told "no" (although they will also want to test you), but it is especially difficult for them to control themselves when they are tired, hungry or upset, which is when tantrums are likely to occur. This is an opportunity for you to intervene. By observing your toddler, it may be possible to identify the signs of a frustrating situation before it occurs or gets out of hand. When a toddler is overtired, she may need to be invited to sit in your lap and look at a book. If your toddler is playing with a friend and tensions begin to run high, it may be time to redirect them with a song or movement game. Still, parents cannot always avoid toddler outbursts. In fact, experiencing frustration/tantrums is an important process for toddlers in learning how to cope with and get through difficult situations. When parents and other caregivers can be available to the toddler during a tantrum (not necessarily giving in to it but identifying with the depth of feeling expressed), the toddler will be able to develop trust that parents and caregivers will be available when they feel out of control and need help coping with their emotions.  Relationships and EmotionsWhat You Can Do: Behavior · Offer tools for the toddler to use in frustrating situations - language in the form or words, gestures, asking for help, etc. - as these skills and behaviors of self-control are developing. · State clear consequences in relation to your toddler's behavior. For example, "You may not take the toy car from Mark, but you may tell him that you want your turn now." Or, "If you take the car from him, I will not let you play with it." · Try to show your acceptance of her even as you redirect "unacceptable" behavior -- for example, by telling her that you still love her even though you do not like the way she is behaving. · Allow yourself to be a "safe or secure base" from which she can set off to explore and to which she can return for comfort and emotional refueling before moving out to explore once again. This means that while you are there to encourage her exploration of objects and the world around her, you are also always ready to welcome her back to your side when she needs the comfort and security of the trusting relationship she has with you. · Allow toddlers to make limited choices. Offer her carrots or apples for desert; red or blue paint for her picture. She will delight in the opportunity to decide. · Focus on the process of play and not on the final product. It is nice to see a painted picture or a completed tower of blocks, but the most important learning takes place during the process of painting and the process of figuring out how to build. · Allow her to make mistakes - they serve as learning opportunities . Relationships and EmotionsWhat's Going On:Separation Anxiety                    By 12 to 14 months of age young toddlers are demonstrating very strong emotional attachment to mom or dad. (Signs of a baby's attachment first appear around 8 months and peak at 15 months.) Maturation of the brain's frontal lobes likely accounts for heightened attachment, and is reflected in the toddler's thinking and behavior. Toddlers can now remember you after you leave them, at a child care center for instance, and anticipation of this separation at drop-off time may be extremely stressful for them.                 The anxiety of separation presents itself in the toddler as a fear of being left or deserted, and each separation may be intense. This is why it is important to know that toddlers are beginning to develop skills in areas of memory, language and symbolic play (e.g., thinking, talking about or playing out scenes about parents and loved ones). The maturation of these skills during the second year will help them cope more smoothly with these separations.                  In the meantime, you should work with your toddler's caregivers to prepare your child for separation times. If he can expect upcoming partings and understand the routine, he will feel more secure in the drop-off process. Responsive caregiving also plays a role during these sometime delicate transitions. A strong relationship with a care provider who is loving, warm, and reassuring can actually cushion some of the toddler's stress response and ease the transition. Ideally, your caregiver will be sensitive to your toddler's individual needs, whether it is to kiss mommy three times and read a favorite book, or to rush to a beloved stuffed animal or blanket. Your care provider should work with you to encourage and support a good-bye routine with your toddler. Some parents may wish to leave without saying good-bye. Although this may avoid an emotional scene, it may also create mistrust in the toddler. Some toddlers will become overly aware and anxious about any signs of separation and worry about it often. Thus, toddlers are better served when you let them know that partings occur and when you help build their confidence in handling separations.  Relationships and EmotionsWhat You Can Do: Separation Anxiety · Allow your toddler to bring something with him from home - a stuffed animal or special blanket (transitional object) to let him know that home is still a part of his day. · Provide pictures of yourselves, siblings, pets, extended family. These pictures can be hung in the child's cubby at child care or assembled in a "home book". · Talk with the care provider about home routines, special events, etc. so that they can be brought up to the toddler during the day as a bridge between home and childcare. · Play games that focus on concepts such as object permanence. Games such as peek-a-boo, hide and seek or dramatic play with animal figures leaving and returning reinforce that objects and people continue to exist even when we can't see them. · Ask the caregiver to talk to your toddler about you during the day. The caregiver should let him know that it is okay to miss you, and that you will come back. Your toddler should be given concrete examples of when you will return such as, "Daddy will come to get you after you eat your lunch". What's Going On:Patterns and Routines                 By 15 months, most toddlers have begun to assert their independence around feeding. They may refuse to eat any foods that they cannot eat by themselves, or they may choose to eat a very limited range of foods. Parents who have been very diligently trying to feed their child a healthy diet may worry now that their child seems to exist on very little to eat. Your concerns about your child's eating may relate to both nutrition and your toddler's growing wish for power and control in his relationship with you. To address the nutritional questions of whether your child is getting enough to eat, your pediatric clinician can monitor your child's growth and offer reassurance by reviewing her growth charts with you.                  As you consider your child's eating habits, be aware that a toddler's desire for independence is an important developmental milestone - becoming one's own person. It is likely that you may also see this push for control in other arenas such as refusing to sit in the car seat or stroller, unwillingness to lie still for a diaper change, or wanting to do things for herself. In this context, you will see that this is not a battle over food, but rather a normal response in your toddler's growing desire for self-control and autonomy.  What You Can Do: Patterns and Routines · As toddlers begin to experiment with food, they may express strong likes and dislikes. Offer small bites of new foods and let your child decide if she wants more. · Expose her to new foods as you both explore what she likes to eat. You may not like the idea of eating cold oatmeal "lumps", but many toddlers thoroughly enjoy eating their cereal if they can feed it to themselves with their fingers. Try such toddler favorites as firm tofu, pasta noodles, bits of soft, boiled chicken, parboiled vegetables, bananas, or American cheese. · Offer foods again that have been previously refused; toddlers often quickly change their minds about food likes and dislikes. · Young toddlers need to practice the eye-hand coordination skills involved in bringing slippery bits of food to their mouths with their fingers or a spoon. Be prepared for the mess by covering the floor under the highchair with a sheet or newspaper. · Try not to make food a battleground. Children will not starve themselves and will eat when they are hungry. Many toddlers need frequent, small meals spaced throughout the day rather than three large meals a day. · Involve your toddler in food preparation. Make food servings bite sized so they can be eaten as finger food. Toddlers work very hard to master their environment; help your child achieve success in self-feeding by providing foods that she can easily eat. · At this age, toddlers need the fat and protein in whole milk that is essential to the growing and myelinating brain. Nonfat and low fat milks are not recommended for use during the first two years of life because of the lower calorie density compared with high fat products. What's Going On:Senses            Your toddler is continuing to investigate what is similar and different about the way different things feel, smell, look, sound, and taste. As you have probably seen, this includes objects - and even people! Toddlers, of course, have their own preferences for the types and levels of sensory stimulation they prefer. You may have already noticed that this may vary over time and depend on a variety of factors. Some toddlers, in fact, are easily over-stimulated and overwhelmed by too much sensory input and will show this by becoming fussy, looking away, becoming distracted, etc. Each toddler is different in the precise way in which she takes in the world. It is not necessary to employ activities such as showing your toddler flash cards to stimulate learning, or to "teach" toddlers specific academic skills such as colors and shapes. Young children learn best using all of their senses and actively exploring the everyday objects in their environment with people who can talk about their experiences and respond positively to them.  What You Can Do: Senses · Provide objects and toys that have a variety of textures, shapes, sizes, weights, etc. · While you play with your toddler, label and describe objects with words. · Remove objects or change activities when she seems over-stimulated or switch to a new location where there are fewer distractions and her choices are limited. · Play different kinds of music to help her learn about various sounds. (Note: Be aware that when using music for background sound, it can be hard for a toddler to hear voices clearly.) · Imitation games played back and forth are a wonderful and fun way to help your toddler explore. · Use props, such as play telephones, food, and hats, to explore pretend or fantasy play. Be open to new ways of playing with and exploring objects. · You can refer to colors and shapes in the course of your natural daily conversations. ("Do you want a red apple or a green apple?" or "Can you hand me the blue ball?"). · If you have any concerns about her vision or hearing, talk to your pediatrician or other health care clinician.
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