Things to be concerned about with your children – and things not to
All responsible parents care about their children. As a result, we sometimes get a little concerned about “the way things are going”.
It’s perfectly natural but here we’d like to offer some advice about things that might be cause for concern and those that typically aren’t.
Things that generally aren’t cause for concern
The developmental milestones of your child
Children develop at their own pace and as we have said many times, they have scant regard for what books say they should be doing.
Almost all the “by the age of 12 months” advice you’ll read is built upon statistics and the concept of the bell curve. That 12 months figure is an average and to get that, large numbers of children will be ahead or behind the curve.
These milestones usually mean little in the context of an individual youngster.
Are you doing as much as other parents
You can’t call yourself a good or bad parent based upon what you see in others. Their family or financial circumstances may be totally different and it’s no basis for comparison.
Just love your child and do the best you can for them.
Picky eating
There are plenty of things you can do to reduce the risk of this happening but if it does, it is very rare for it to become a serious problem.
On the whole, children will tend to eat what they want to eat once past a certain age.
Things to focus on
Is your child happy and well-integrated in school/child care centre?
To be frank, you may have little way of knowing the answer to this unless you have a first-class provider of child care/pre-school services – and one that communicates with you regularly.
If that’s not the case, you may simply need to resort to traditional assessment, with things such as children who are very reluctant to go to the centre or cry a lot, being a warning (though not necessarily conclusive) symptom.
Is your child’s behaviour acceptable when out of your sight?
Children have little outbursts where they can be angry, petulant and even spiteful. Providing these are infrequent, such things are not usually cause for concern and are perfectly normal.
However, in rare cases, they can be an indication of more serious behavioural problems that should be recognised and addressed as soon as possible. If you’re not there to recognise such symptoms, you will need someone there who is capable of doing so.
Is your child getting the best and most focused education suitable for them as an individual?
One-size-fits-all care and education provision isn’t always optimal. Children are very different and learn in different ways and at different speeds.
It’s important to have a programme that assesses their individual characteristics and responds accordingly with a suitable learning structure.
Where Byford Child Care Centre comes in
The children in our care are never seen as a collective. We know each of them has to be seen in their own individuality and a care/learning programme tailored accordingly.
We also firmly believe in the criticality of forming a partnership with parents. You should never be ‘surprised’ by reports about your child’s progress or issues arising.
To judge our values, why not contact us for a free 2-hour session or a tour of our child care centre?
