It feels amazing how fast time passes by. It seems your little one was just born the other day and now when you look at her, she is almost one and a half year old! She shall continue to surprise you every day with her new skills and capabilities. You will find her excited at her smallest achievements and shall spend most of her time prodding and examining things around.
While you may be requesting her not to touch certain things all through the day, do not expect her to listen to you. Toddlers at this age love tasting anything they get hold of. Although, she may love to explore around her little world, she may still feel insecure when you are not around. It will not be wise to interpret her as fragile or emotional, when she tries to cling to you. You may also notice changes in her behaviour with changes in the daily routine, house shifts or when you welcome a new baby home.
Here we shall look more closely into some of the developments you can expect in her this month:
17-Month-Old Toddler’s Growth and Development
She can now walk around all by herself without any support. You may also find her attempting to run at times. Losing balance and falling are common among
toddlers trying to run. She needs to develop a little more coordination and concentration to be able to climb, run or scale. With development of her
motor skills she shall be able to attain all of them.
She can now name her different body parts and point to them when named if you teach her all such things. You can hold a doll and point to her different features and familiarise her with the body parts.
She shall be able to speak around 20 words now. Even though they may not be clear, you may start understanding few of them. You can give her simple commands like "bring the mug", or "fold your napkin".
Interactive Games and Playtimes for Toddlers
You can now supply her plenty of paper, brushes, non toxic crayons and paints. Using these shall help her develop her gross motor skills well. Finger painting, collages and paper mache are some other activities that you can engage her in.
You can arrange a play area for her, where she can spend her playing with her
toys. Try not to clean the mess too early, as toddlers have short attention span and may again want to get back to her previous game. Make sure to praise her for the efforts she puts in while stacking building blocks or painting. Your feedback shall help her develop confidence and self esteem.
Reading to her every day is very essential. You will find her developing her favourites and she shall want you to read the same pages again and again.
Reading aloud the same story shall help her feel reassured and develop a sense of predictability. She may be interested in turning pages and mimicking your voice as you read. Although she may not understand what you read, repeating the same
stories shall help her make sense of the actions.
Eating Patterns of a Toddler
You can now engage her at times in helping you with your kitchen chores. Simple tasks like mixing stuffs, putting the cherries on sandwiches shall help her develop interest in eating.
During the meal times, you can put her in the high chair and let her watch you eat. This shall not only make her feel part of the family, but she shall learn to eat fast too.
Do not give much attention if she is messing with her food. Giving less attention shall in fact help her concentrate more on her food than your behaviour. But make sure that you do not give her foods that may cause choking hazard.
Enjoy watching her grow and develop into an independent individual.
What developments can be observed in a 17-month-old toddler? How to encourage learning in toddlers? What kinds of toys are suitable for toddlers? Discuss here.
