Page 23 - teachYourChildToRead

Two years to three years 23

Playing a simple game of follow the leader with two to three year old
children is a good idea as you can include both co-ordination and cross
lateral activity. Movement such as running, hopping, walking on tip
toes, jumping between stepping stones, crawling, twisting and turning,
rolling down hills and climbing are ideal activities to get both sides of the
brain working together.

Development of the finer muscles in their hands is also important at
this age. Activities such as playing in sand, mud, water, block building,
threading, dressing and undressing dolls promotes the development of
physical dexterity in the hand and fingers needed later for hand writing.

Play

Playing with other children enhances language skills. Young children
verbalise a lot when they play. They say out loud what they are thinking
as many have not yet developed inner speech. Children will usually
chatter constantly while playing. Play helps children to vocalise and
organise their thoughts.

Participate in creative play experiences with your child. By nature, we
are born to play. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood some of
us forget how to play, we don’t remember the joy it brings. Give yourself
permission to play with joyful abandon, get down and involved in the
play, you might just find it a great stress relief and downright fun.

Play based learning

Young children undertake an amazing amount of learning in the first few
years of life; they absorb new information very quickly. However, trying
to get children to learn tasks before they are ready does not have any real
advantage in the long run. You cannot force a child’s brain to develop
faster; you can only provide the best possible environment for learning
to occur.

For example, teaching a three year old child to tell the time can be
achieved, however for a child of this age to learn this complex task it