Why child development in the first five years of life is seriously important

Written by: Morgan E.

Every child has a mind of its own. As it is utterly impossible to compare your little one with other kids the same age, it is also vital to know that every child develops certain skills at his or her pace. However, during the first five years of a child's life, and especially the first and second year, represent a real rollercoaster, both for the child and for the parents. This is the time when you need to dedicate your full attention and care to nurture their little brains, spark up their imagination, and support and boost their curiosity. There are numerous reasons to do those things, and here are some of the milestones your child will go through in its early stages of life.

Enliven the world around them

Infants only observe the world around them and might only play with their hands. From the fourth month, you may expect major changes. From the physical development, they will learn to walk, run, climb and even hop and use toys like rattles, floor puzzles, softballs, toy strollers and similar to strengthen up their ability to get around and be more independent. With these big physical changes, they improve muscle stability, conditioning and strength. By having to push hard to hold their balance, and by having to stand up and squat unsupported, pick up small toys they will strengthen all of the core muscles and become more independent. Later, they will be able to walk heel-to-toe, kick the ball, draw, dress and brush teeth without assistance all of which enhances their ability to blend with the everyday obligations, thus promoting their cognitive skills as well.

Utilize their curiosity and imagination with playtime

After the first year, toddlers are more willing to engage in a single play. Most children at this stage of child development use toys as tools to boost their communication skills, physical and cognitive behaviour, and social skills. As every child is different, you need to search for the best type of play to enhance child development. Games and toys will help promote solitary play, expressive and constructive play, all of which is crucial for boosting their cognitive and social skills, get good hand-eye coordination, and helping them become more physically and mentally active. At the ages of 1-5 years, this can best be done with toys and books but you can also implement role-play activities, dress-ups, and play-pretend games. Children learn how to stretch their imagination, use new words, and express their emotions.

 Refine creative thinking and upgrade linguistic ans social behavior

On average, a 3-year-old child can speak around 1,000 words, but unless you work on enhancing their linguistics and abilities, they may be behind other children their age. Another quite important reason why child development in the first five years is extremely vital is the ability to comprehend other kids the same age and be able to communicate their needs and desires with ease. Reading colorful and interesting books is very helpful, even the simple and small flip and flap children’s books are vital to refine their cognitive thinking and improve their vocabulary. This can also be done with repetition, songs, and visualization.

Trigger various emotional and cognitive states

Every child needs a lot of love and affection to make them feel content and safe. Through their development stages, they will learn how to get through many obstacles and succumb to innumerable difficult and challenging situations. All of those things trigger various emotional and cognitive states that will enable them to become more aware of the things they are allowed to do, they will characterize the good from the bad, and they will discover how not to use emotions to get what they want. In the first five years of their development, children will use up their emotions to communicate their needs. Even if this is reasonable at early stages of child development, you should nurture oral and verbal communication to boost their cognitive skills. Again, toys and play come in handy. Young children learn through play, so it is a must to give them lots of play-time, and let them repeat an activity on and on.

Learn through play

The best way to enhance your child’s development in the first five years is to let them learn through play. This doesn’t mean you have to buy expensive and complicated toys, on the contrary, toddlers usually favour simple household objects like plastic pots, key chains, and remote controls. The thing that happens in their little minds as they play is a completely individual story that depends from child to child. But generally, they learn to comprehend from simple and mundane things to discovering how complicated ‘real-life’ situations happen. They learn new words by repetition, they mimic good and bad behaviour, and by cooperating with other kids their age they learn the skills associated with various problem-solving techniques.

Establish some basic and firm guidelines, but also let your child be free and encourage effective playtime. Child development in the first five years can have an immense effect on future doings, so give them toys and let them play with whatever they desire.