“As the twig is bent so is the tree inclined” is an old parenting proverb to the effect that, when applied to parenting, means that what your child experiences in the first years of life sets the course for the whole life cycle. This e-book takes you inside your child’s world to help you better understand how children develop and what they experience — allowing you to adapt your parenting to their unique abilities, needs and interests.
The single most important fact about infants and children is they are constantly growing and changing. As parents this means that we have to grow and change along with them. When your baby starts to crawl and walk, for example, you have to “babyproof” his or her living space. The challenge is to set limits and allow freedoms in keeping with the child’s maturing abilities, needs and interests. We do this best if we start from where the child is in his or her development, not from some abstract rule or principle. Adapting flexibly to the needs of the growing child is what nourishes our development as loving and effective parents.
Decades of research shows that infants and children who receive age appropriate, loving childrearing develop a sense of trust, of autonomy, of initiative, and of industry that will serve them well in their progress towards maturity. That is why understanding the stages of children’s emotional, language, intellectual and social development is critical to effective and successful parenting.