Autonomy in Child Development
At 3 years, your child has left infancy far behind. Independence is always a goal in your child’s development throughout his life. This life long drive will become more obvious at 3 years. It will acquire new dimensions and will be a factor in your relationship with your child that cannot be denied. In your interactions with your child you will want to be particularly sensitive to her efforts. Your child will still need your supervision and there will be parts of tasks with which he will need your help. However, there is one important change in your child’s developmental skills that will be important for his learning. That change is your child’s greater tolerance for failure experiences. Developmental skills require a struggle to master. They take time; their mastery involves many attempts that don’t quite succeed. Younger children don’t have as much tolerance for this failure. Although you have given your child opportunities to do things on her own, you often provided help when success didn’t happen. Through this process, you have shielded your child from experiencing too much failure. Because of this, your child has acquired a healthy image of himself as someone who can accomplish difficult tasks. This sense is called “self efficacy.” This is a feeling about ones ability to accomplish tasks. It is developed through having more experiences of success than experiences of failure. This sense of self-efficacy is important for your child to be able to learn through experimentation. Beginning with this third year, you will give your child more independence in finding solutions to daily living problems on his own. In the coming years, your child will require less and less help from you.
Cognitive Developmental Milestones Third Year
For the last two years, your child has been discovering how the world is put together. One of her first discoveries was how things could fall apart. Then he began building simple constructions. This development now extends into physical problems such as putting together 3-4 piece puzzles. You will also notice her block constructions have become more complex. Balancing one block on another is no longer an achievement for her. He is beginning to create enclosures. Another achievement that will increase your child’s independence is turning door knobs. Adults have long forgotten learning this important skill. Up to this point in his life, your child has been dependent upon others opening doors. For your child, doors were a mystery and a road block. Being able to go into another room on your own is a joy long forgotten by adults.
This simple skill opens new possibilities in toy play. Your child will quickly begin using toys that have levers and buttons. Your child will discover his toys have a life of their own. She can make them do things that brings new sensory experiences into her world. Your child’s toy world will acquire an excitement it has never had. Most importantly, your child will be creating this new excitement. Your child’s sense of personal efficacy will increase dramatically. You must realize that from your child’s point of view, this is a very exciting time for him. Even though his independence is growing, he can still benefit from your play time. Exploration of his toys is an important experience for your child. However, you can stimulate his discovery by modeling new things to do with his toys during your toy play time.
Another cognitive skill is that of turning pages. This act itself of turning a page is a fine motor skill. However, the reason for turning the page is a cognitive skill. In fact, it is a basic literacy skill. Along with turning pages of a book, your child will begin to make a computer screen change through the pushing of particular buttons. Both of these skills are important as they give your child access to new information. Before this time, your child has acquired information through physical access to the environment and through your speech. You saw your child’s knowledge grow as her motor skills grew. With the new skills of turning pages and pushing buttons, your child has two new sources of information, books and computers.
These new developmental skills open new doors of learning for your child. She is beginning to experience discovery learning. He no longer learns by merely having someone help him do a task. Her world has become more exciting as she now discovers new things about her environment. Be sure to share this excitement with your child every day.
Language Development Milestones
At two years, your child’s language is beginning to blossom. She is beginning to string 2-3 simple sentences together and her speech can now be understood by the family. In his past development, he has learned to obtain the listener’s attention as a basic conversational skill. Now, her language will begin to develop functions, such as asking questions. This development is not only important for your child’s language but also for her cognitive development. Your child will begin expanding her base knowledge with the common question: “What is that?” Soon your child’s vocabulary will explode. Because of her increasing language skills, her social interactions with others will increase in length. His ability to take turns that has emerged will be applied to interactions with others in which he interacts using language. These linguistic interactions will begin to turn into conversations. This is all part of the fact that your child’s brain is integrating her developmental skills.
At three years, your child will be able to name most of the objects she uses in her daily life. This is a functional language vocabulary. While his vocabulary centers on the names of functional objects, he will begin to use some words with more abstract meanings such as “on,” “in,” and “through.” However, her use of these relational words will be restricted to functional, daily, situations. He will not be able to apply them to situations he has not personally experienced. His school experiences will expand the number of new contexts in which he can apply his language knowledge.
Movement Development Milestones
Your child’s growing autonomy will be most clearly expressed in her movement. Basic skills such as running and jumping will be done with ease. She will venture into play situations that previously frightened her with ease, such as sliding down a slide. Her expanding motor skills will increase her world and provide more enjoyment. This additional enjoyment will drive her enthusiasm for exploring and mastering her environment. Throwing a ball will become more than just a physical act as it had been a year ago. His proficiency at this task will crack open the door to a social world of sports. Your child will enjoy playing ball with other children.
Three-Year Development Activities
Up to this point, your child’s development has be largely controlled by the development of his brain. Your interactions with your child facilitated and enriched that development. Now, as your child gets older, her development will be increasingly influenced by her experiences. Thus, her own learning will have a greater impact on her development. For this reason, your own interactions with your child will carry increasing weight in her growth. One important tool for growth that has been developing is his language skills. Your child’s information about the world will increasingly come through language. However, don’t forget that the motor, social, emotional, and cognitive experiences you provide are still very important. These experiences will always be the foundation of your child’s learning.