In The Baby Book, the Sears state emphatically that:
“Like language development, interaction with caregivers can profoundly affect social development” (p449)
That sounds like a statement of the obvious; of course interaction affects social development. The underlying issue, however is that caregiver interaction must adjust to each stage of a child’s development in order to affect it positively. The parent who nurtures a three-year-old in the same way as a one-year-old will affect the three-year-old in harmful, not helpful, ways.
In order to adjust appropriately to the changing child, a parent must have healthy expectations of the child at each stage. Yet, as noted in a recent post, a “significant number of parents [have] unrealistic expectations about their baby’s development” across economic and educational lines. How can a parent develop realistic expectations, particularly with a first child? They need reliable, timely developmental information. What was reasonable to expect 3 months ago may not be reasonable anymore, because children change. For that reason, Tumblon’s child pages provide a simple, one-page overview of a child’s current development, integrated with developmentally appropriate activities, books and toys so that in 3 minutes parents can have ample ideas for how to interact appropriately with their children.
If you haven’t yet, now is the time to check it out.
