Growth and Development of the Toddler (Nursing)

00:00 Let's go over some important toddler development milestones.

00:03 First, what's the toddler age.

00:06 So it's about age 1 to 3.

00:08 Age three takes you into the preschool year.

00:10 So we'll cover them in more detail, in the next lecture, the preschool growth and development lecture.

00:16 We're going to go over the major milestones in growth, motor function, cognitive function, and language of the toddler.

00:23 Starting with growth.

00:26 So at this point, from age 1 to age 3, the weight gain is much slower than it has been the first year of life.

00:32 And that's because they're active. They're very, very active.

00:36 In fact, you can hardly get them to sit still.

00:39 Their weight gain at this point is only about 2.2 kilos or 5 pounds per year.

00:46 They're growing up, not out.

00:47 And that's what you'll hear quite a bit about this age.

00:50 Let's move on to motor milestones.

00:53 The toddler is a natural explorer.

00:55 They are up, their vertical usually running around, or at least walking around and falling quite a bit.

01:01 And they're exploring everything.

01:04 So my daughter, Jenna, will come into the story again.

01:07 She learned to walk, she started to learn to walk about 15 months, and she was steady on her feet by 18 months, which is later than most toddlers.

01:15 But that's because she got a slow start to walking.

01:18 At that point, you have to really make sure you kids safe everything.

01:22 Make sure things are locked up that they're able to reach because they will open every drawer and every candidate that they can reach.

01:28 They can also do things that adults do, which is really exciting for them and for their families.

01:33 They can drink from cups, they may be able to run at this point, if they have enough coordination.

01:39 And they definitely should be able to walk independently by 18 months.

01:42 They can be taken to restaurants and they don't have to eat with their fingers and make a mess quite as much as they used to.

01:49 By two years old.

01:51 A lot of toddlers are learning to climb, but it may not look quite way it does with older kids and adults.

01:57 They usually walk up and down steps or the rungs of a ladder holding on to something and they may do it one step at a time with both feet on the same step before they move to the following step.

02:11 They can stand on their tippy toes and they may be able to run and they can climb independently.

02:17 By three.

02:18 They're climbing well.

02:20 They're running easily.

02:21 And they're walking up and down the steps one foot on each step kind of like we do.

02:26 They should be able to pedal a tricycle as well as why a lot of daycares and preschools will have tricycles for the small children, because they really enjoy that independence once they're able to do that.

02:38 All right, let's go over cognitive milestones of the toddler.

02:42 So from birth to age 2 is a sensory motor stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

02:48 Remember that from the infant lecture if you don't already, but as when they're using their senses and their motor functions, or their bodies to really explore their world.

02:57 They're very much into pretend play when they're, you know, throughout the toddler years into the preschool years, they're starting to dress up like to your characters, favorite people, or even animals that can scribble, which can be a lot of fun if at a restaurant or keep them busy for a while while you eat.

03:14 They can follow simple verbal commands, although they may not always choose to do so.

03:19 And they understand the use of common household objects.

03:22 They may actually use them correctly and not just play with them in a random fashion.

03:27 By 2, they can find hidden objects easily.

03:31 They can sort shapes and colors pretty easily.

03:33 And they can also build larger towers.

03:36 They can also start reading, at least that's what they call it.

03:39 They could name common objects or items in a picture book, They call it reading.

03:44 There's no reason to correct them at that point that gets them excited about reading.

03:47 And eventually they learn to read words.

03:52 So the toddler goes through a second stage of cognitive development before they reach preschool years.

03:58 And that's the preoperational stage.

04:00 It begins about age 2 and ends about age 7.

04:04 This is a stage it's marked by symbolic thought.

04:08 So that is the goal of this stage is symbolic thought means So that is the goal of this stage is symbolic thought means the ability to understand that a word or object can stand for something else.

04:16 So for example, when I took my kids, when I drove them down the street and they saw the McDonald sign, they knew they might be getting a happy meal and they get really excited because the McDonald signs stood for Happy Meal to them when they were toddlers.

04:30 At this point, they're not yet capable of logical or operational thought or problem solving.

04:36 They actually engage in a lot of what we call magical thinking.

04:40 And we're going to talk about that more in the preschool growth and development lecture because that's when it really takes off.

04:47 But the toddler is already playing make believe.

04:50 So, Jenna, would run around acting like a cheetah, and my son Greg, at this age would run around acting like a superhero.

04:56 In fact, he would do it all day long, including out in public.

05:01 They build some larger towers, and they're starting to really get coordinated at keeping them steady.

05:06 Making sure they don't fall over until they really want them to.

05:09 they can work with small puzzles, they can actually copy circles, or simple shapes.

05:11 they can actually copy circles, or simple shapes.

05:15 And they can turn book pages and door handles.

05:17 They can start to really become hazardous to themselves in other ways.

05:23 So, you'll hear that some people actually will reverse the locks on their kids bedroom doors for this reason, because they can be so dangerous to themselves.

05:31 Before they have the sense to really know how wrong that is to leave the middle of the night and go to a neighbor's house.

05:37 Sometimes you have to protect them from from themselves.

05:41 They can also open and close jar tops.

05:43 So they're also very much into anything they can get into, again, a big safety issue.

05:49 So always the thing anything they can reach, this should be safe for them to play with, or to potentially put in their mouth.

05:58 All right, let's wrap this up with language milestones of the toddler.

06:03 So they are learning a lot.

06:05 They are loving to point to things before they actually start talking and saying what they want.

06:11 The more siblings they have, who will get things for them, the more they will point to things because that means they don't have to do as much work to get what they want.

06:19 So you have to be really careful and make sure you encourage them to speak.

06:22 They'd like to shake their head no.

06:25 And they're very, very much known for that at this age.

06:27 And they can say several words.

06:29 Often "no" is one of the first words they say.

06:31 Dada is often one of the second words they say because usually it's easier to say than mother or mama.

06:37 At two years old, they are following simple instructions at times.

06:42 They can repeat actual words that they hear such as when somebody is reading to them.

06:46 And they can say sentences with two to four words or so.

06:49 They can also point to things in a book if they haven't been doing that already.

06:54 And by 3, they're talking well enough for people outside their family to understand them.

06:59 They don't need an interpreter anymore from their family members.

07:02 They can say pronouns and plurals.

07:05 And they can say their first name, their age, and their gender, at the very least, which is helpful for safety purposes in case they ever get lost because they are known to get loss occasionally.

07:14 Thank you for joining me.

07:16 The next stage will be the pre-schooler growth and development lecture.