Toddler Cognitive Development
The brief time spent in the toddler area is among the most crucial periods for your child’s cognitive development. This is where the foundation for academic, cognitive, social, and emotional skills is established and nurtured. During this stage, toddlers actively seek information and rapidly acquire spoken language, transitioning from non-verbal communication. Toddlers crave independence, knowledge, order, consistency, and exploration of their surroundings. To support these developmental needs, our toddler environment is carefully designed to encourage safe exploration and promote these essential ideals.
Introducing children to a wide variety of artistic, expressive, and technological experiences at a young age fosters a love of learning and significantly enhances their developmental growth. After completing one year in the toddler environment, children are better equipped to process, make sense of, and organize their surroundings. They also develop critical cognitive, social, and emotional skills, preparing them to advance to more complex academic subjects.
As children grow
As children grow, the older toddler program (18 months to 2.5 years) fosters development in a carefully structured environment that nurtures personal growth, independence, and socialization. Special attention is given to movement, language, and sensory development during this sensitive period, with materials and activities thoughtfully selected to support each child’s unique path.
For two-year-olds and transitioning children (2–3.5 years), we provide a seamless blend of the nurturing aspects of the infant/toddler program with a focus on broader developmental skills. These include daily living activities, self-care, potty training, as well as movement, language, music, and art. During these early years, children gain the foundational cognitive, social, and emotional skills necessary to excel in more advanced academic settings.
In this nurturing and dynamic environment, your child’s love of learning is poised to flourish!
Toddler Class: Key Skills Development
In the Toddler Class, students focus on mastering these essential skills:
- - Building concentration span
- - Developing self-confidence, personal discipline, and independence
- - Enhancing fine and gross motor skills
- - Improving hand-eye coordination
- - Learning to share with others
- - Showing empathy toward others
- - Expanding language skills and verbalizing needs or emotions
- - Following directions and understanding classroom rules
Subject Areas
Practical Life Activities
– Spooning objects (small and large): Enhances fine motor skills and precision.
– Sweeping objects (small): Encourages coordination and responsibility for tidiness.
– Pouring objects (wet and dry): Develops hand-eye coordination and control.
– Squeezing objects (small and large): Strengthens hand muscles for future writing tasks.
– Care of self:
Brushing hair Folding/rolling napkins
Folding a sweater
Dressing oneself (buttoning, zippering, Velcro, tying, lacing, etc.)
– Polishing items: Teaches care for belongings and attention to detail (e.g., shoes, silver).
– Transferring objects:
Using the whole hand
Tweezers and tongs
– Grading and matching objects: Sorting by color, size, or shape to build visual discrimination.
– Water activities:
Washing a baby doll
Basting water
Scrubbing a table
Making bubbles with a whisk
– Understanding opposites: Learning concepts like on/off and up/down through practical exploration.
Sensorial
– Refining the senses:
Smelling jars: Differentiating between various scents.
Sound cylinders: Differentiating and matching sounds of varying volumes or tones.
Tasting jars: Exploring and distinguishing different tastes (e.g., sweet, sour, salty, bitter).
Touch boards: Feeling and identifying textures like rough and smooth.
Sight activities: Grading objects by size, shape, and color to enhance visual discrimination.
Language Arts
– Puzzles: Enhances problem-solving and hand-eye coordination.
– Sequencing: Develops logical thinking and understanding of order.
– Matching: Supports visual discrimination and categorization skills.
– Poking Paper: Strengthens fine motor skills and prepares the hand for writing.
– Phonetic Sounds: Introduces the sounds of letters to build early literacy.
– Symbolic Letter Recognition: Helps toddlers associate symbols with sounds and meaning.
– Name Recognition: Encourages awareness of personal identity and written names.
– Beginning Tracing: Promotes pre-writing skills by refining hand control and pencil grip.
Mathematics
– Learning basic geometric shapes:
Exploring and identifying shapes such as circles, triangles, and squares to build spatial awareness.
– Counting numbers in one-to-one correspondence:
Associating each object with one number to develop counting skills and number sense.
– Numeral recognition:
Learning to identify numerals visually and understanding their symbolic meaning.
– Association of quantity with numerals:
Matching numbers with corresponding quantities using objects like counters, beads, or cards.
– Understanding the concept of zero:
Introducing the idea that “0” represents nothing, laying the foundation for abstract mathematical thinking.
Cultural Studies
– Botany
Learning the parts of plants (e.g., roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits).
Understanding how plants grow through activities like planting seeds, watering, and observing plant growth.
-Zoology
Exploring the parts of animals (e.g., head, body, legs, wings, fins).
Learning about different groups of animals: mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish.
– Geography and Culture
Identifying continent on the world map
