Developmentally Appropriate
"Developmentally appropriate" is a phrase used a lot in my school and the meaning is straight-forward: challenge students with skills and concepts that match up with the child's intellectual ability, emotional maturity, and abstract-thinking level. Making a concept too hard or too easy is just frustrating for everyone involved; hitting the developmentally appropriate sweet-spot is the aspiration for teachers.
This is something I've kept in mind as a parent. For the past two years, I fended off our pediatrician's statements that my kid should know how to swim. I encouraged my kid to bike with training wheels as long as she wanted, I kept buying her velcro shoes so she wouldn't have to tie them and elastic-waist skorts so that she didn't have to manipulate snaps and buttons. Raina's fine motor dexterity wasn't ready for anything complicated and her gross motor skills have come along slowly. (She's cursed with my complete lack of balance and muscle strength.)
However, when Raina had the background skills, maturity, and confidence, she learned each skill in a matter of minutes. One swim lesson. 10 minutes on a bike without training wheels. 3 minutes to learn to tie shoes. Waiting until the situation was developmentally appropriate for her has paid off handsomely.
Little Lola is very bright, she has a good memory, she makes connections, she's athletic, and she's physically large for her age. Daycare keeps advancing her into the next older group because that's developmentally appropriate for her. Fortunately / unfortunately, she's being promoted to the three years-old room in a few weeks, even though she won't even be two-and-a-half. She's ready for everything EXCEPT for the potty training. She just isn't there yet and we have been pushing her because that is what daycare wants, regardless that it clearly isn't developmentally appropriate for her yet. Needless to say, it has been a trial for her and us, and I am hopeful that it just clicks for her in the next few weeks.
This is something I've kept in mind as a parent. For the past two years, I fended off our pediatrician's statements that my kid should know how to swim. I encouraged my kid to bike with training wheels as long as she wanted, I kept buying her velcro shoes so she wouldn't have to tie them and elastic-waist skorts so that she didn't have to manipulate snaps and buttons. Raina's fine motor dexterity wasn't ready for anything complicated and her gross motor skills have come along slowly. (She's cursed with my complete lack of balance and muscle strength.)
However, when Raina had the background skills, maturity, and confidence, she learned each skill in a matter of minutes. One swim lesson. 10 minutes on a bike without training wheels. 3 minutes to learn to tie shoes. Waiting until the situation was developmentally appropriate for her has paid off handsomely.
Little Lola is very bright, she has a good memory, she makes connections, she's athletic, and she's physically large for her age. Daycare keeps advancing her into the next older group because that's developmentally appropriate for her. Fortunately / unfortunately, she's being promoted to the three years-old room in a few weeks, even though she won't even be two-and-a-half. She's ready for everything EXCEPT for the potty training. She just isn't there yet and we have been pushing her because that is what daycare wants, regardless that it clearly isn't developmentally appropriate for her yet. Needless to say, it has been a trial for her and us, and I am hopeful that it just clicks for her in the next few weeks.
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