[Remember This]
Every child has their own strengths. As the brain develops,
we need to be aware of and accept individual differences, respect their individuality, and avoid comparing children to each other.
[Note] Around 7–9 months, the frontal lobe and hippocampus (involved in learning and memory) rapidly develop,
and “stranger anxiety” begins.
During this period, meeting new people more often can help reduce stranger anxiety.
2) Language Development
A baby can distinguish their mother’s voice within 24 hours of birth. A newborn expresses everything through crying,
but by 3–4 months they begin to babble.
Early babbling sounds similar across all cultures — almost like a “universal baby language.”
However, by around 6 months, babies start to notice the sounds of their native language and babble using those sounds.
Even if the babbling has no clear meaning yet, it is important for caregivers to respond and show them how to make sounds.
Around 10 months, babies start to imitate adult pronunciation, and after their first birthday (about 12 months),
they begin to say single words like “mama” and “dada.”
By about 2 years old, they can acquire around 2,000 words — this phase is often called the
“vocabulary explosion.”
At this age, children combine two words and ask endless questions like “What’s this?”
By 3 years (around 36 months), most children can use sentence structures similar to adults.
Even before a child can speak, the language system in the brain is developing rapidly.
That’s why it’s so important to provide plenty of appropriate language input from birth,
so they can naturally move into the “speaking” stage later on.
If language development seems delayed, doctors usually start with a hearing test or a brain development assessment.
If everything looks normal, they then check whether the child has received enough
verbal interaction at home.
In many cases, what the child really needs is more chances to speak and someone patient enough to wait and listen.
[Two Key Ingredients for Language Acquisition]
① Inborn Language Ability
- Basic language abilities babies are born with, including:
- Hearing: the ability to hear sounds
- Phoneme discrimination: telling the difference between sounds like “ah” and “uh”
- Sensitivity to grammar: listening to “mama” and “dada” and trying to imitate
② Environmental Language Input
- During the critical period (roughly 0–3 years), rich two-way verbal interaction with caregivers is essential.
- It’s especially helpful to:
- Make eye contact,
- Describe what the child is doing,
- Respond with empathy and use rich vocabulary.
[Important Notes for Language Development]
-
Even if a 0–3-year-old asks the same question like “What’s this?” over and over,
we should not respond with “I already told you yesterday.”
Children often experience that as criticism.
It’s much better to keep answering kindly and richly, and turn it into a conversation.
-
Even so-called “educational videos” are not ideal as a main source of language stimulation,
because the input is one-way.
The best language input is always a caregiver who makes eye contact, responds to the child,
and uses rich, varied words in real conversation.
[Discipline Tip] When Your Child Uses a “Bad Word”
- Empathize: “You’re upset because it’s not working, right?”
- Explain the problem: “But saying ‘ugh, damn’ (or similar) is not okay.”
- Offer an alternative: “Next time, try saying ‘This isn’t working well’ instead.”
3) Cognitive Development
“Cognition” refers to the process by which we perceive, evaluate, and understand information.
In the past, many people believed in the “blank slate” idea that children are born knowing nothing.
But over the past 20–30 years, research has shown that children are
active learners who think, form hypotheses, and test them to discover how the world works.
Even very young infants are born with the following early cognitive abilities:
- Memory and mental representation
- Understanding of cause and effect
- Problem solving
- Basic physical concepts
- Early number concepts
In other words, babies are born with huge learning potential.
In particular, the ability to imitate caregivers is a uniquely human and very powerful way of learning.
So when a child wants to try something, instead of saying
“No, it’s dangerous, you can’t do that,”
it’s important to encourage them to try (within safe limits).
The caregiver’s role is to:
- Create an environment where the child can be curious, explore, and learn independently, and
- Provide praise and encouragement that keeps their motivation going.
[Parenting Tip: Raising a Child with Healthy Self-Esteem]
Self-esteem is the strength to try again even when things are hard.
This strength grows through experiencing failure, then trying again and finally succeeding.
So whenever your child fails, remember these three phrases:
“It’s okay.” “You can do it.” “Let’s try again.”
These short sentences help build resilient, confident children.
4) Socio-Emotional Development
Early childhood is the stage when basic personality and character are formed,
and most of a person’s emotional patterns are built during this period.
How we spend these years has a huge impact on a child’s
future personality, relationships, and emotional stability.
A child’s emotions are strongly influenced by parental reactions:
- Positive, supportive reactions → children tend to grow into curious, intellectually active individuals.
- Negative, critical reactions → children may become withdrawn, overly guilty, and passive.
[Main Emotions in Early Childhood]
- Joy : expressed through smiles, laughter, clapping, etc. The healthier the child, the clearer their expressions.
- Anger : often appears when their desires are blocked; peaks around age 2, when a sense of “self” emerges.
- ⚠️ If parents over-suppress anger at this stage, it can later show up as aggression.
- Fear & Anxiety : around 6 months, babies begin to show wariness toward unfamiliar people — this is when “stranger anxiety” typically begins.
[Tip: Preventing Anger from Turning into Aggression]
When you need to limit something your child wants to do, you might say:
“You really want to keep playing, huh? Okay, let’s play for 10 more minutes, and then we’ll put it away.”
It’s important to actually follow through after 10 minutes.
Through this process, children learn “promises” and “rules.”
[Discipline Tip: When Your Child Throws Their Body Against the Wall and Cries]
step 1. Gently hold your child on your lap so they can’t hurt themselves.
step 2. Say, “I’ll let you go when you’re ready to stop crying and talk with me.” calmly.
step 3. Once they calm down, loosen your hold a bit and say,
“I did that because I don’t want you to get hurt. It’s dangerous to hit your body against the wall. When you’re calm, we can talk.”
[Encouraging Autonomy]
“Autonomy” is a child’s inner drive to do things by themselves.
It’s good to start nurturing this from around age 2, when independence begins to appear.
At this stage, children want to do everything alone, but the results are often clumsy and incomplete.
Even so, we can keep saying:
“It’s okay.” “You can do it.” “Let’s try again.”
⚠️ Sarcasm or mocking tones are strictly off limits — children can sense the nuance very clearly.
[Factors That Interfere with Autonomy]
- Overprotective parenting
- Doing everything for the child
- Criticizing or shaming
The Infant Caregiver Training is a 4-day course.
In this post, I focused on the main theory topics from Day 1.
I’ll discuss the remaining theory and play-based sessions in the remaining three parts of this series.
👉 Read Day2 : First Aid, Home Safety & Baby Weaning Guide
👉 Read Day3: Play Class Recap
🌿 Life Project | Today 1 Step
This post is part of the “Today 1 Step” Life Project series.
I record small moments, what I learn, and my attempts to live more true to myself.
Hobbies, family, growth, and the journey of the heart — slow but steady steps.
👉 See other projects:
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