Encouragement can be the difference between life and death for your toddler! Okay, not really life and death but, it does have a major effect on your toddler's developement. Believe it or not, the amount and type of encouragement you give to your toddler can have a massive impact on whether or not your toddler progresses as they should on the developmental scale. Problem solving skills, appropriate play, eating habits, speech, these are all things that your toddler's pediatrician evaluates on every check up. Without the proper encouragement and nurturing, these skills won't mature as quickly as they should (or as quickly as they can).

I hate using the word should, everyone's different and your toddler isn't necessarily going to fit into that "cookie cutter" mold that the specialist's have cut out for them. Still, I don't think there are many parents in the world that don't want their children to excel, even as toddlers. So, now that we're in agreement about that, I want to give you some tips on parenting toddlers related to what you should encourage and why.

What do I encourage my toddler about? That seems like a fairly easy question to answer so, lets state the obvious. You want to encourage appropriate play, speech, activities that enhance your toddlers problem solving skills, good/healthy eating habits, and exercise habits. Those are the basics. Now, for a big one you might not have thought of: helping. Possibly one of the biggest tips on parenting toddlers I could give you would be to allow and encourage your toddler to help you with basic activities. Simple things that encourage their learning abilities and help them create some awesome and practical habits.

For instance, tidying up their toys. Parents seem to have it stuck in their heads that they are forever domed to an eternity of picking up after their children and getting nothing but arguments whenever they dare ask that their kid pick up after themself. I'm here to tell you, this doesn't have to be that big an issue, if you start developing those kinds of habits now. Show them how to do it, talk to them about what you're doing while you do it, encourage them to do the same, and reward them when they do. Now, I'm not saying that your child is going to enjoy picking up toys once he/she is old enough to understand they're doing a chore but, if you get them into the habit of doing it everyday they'll stay in that for the future.

By the age of two my son knew how to pick up his toys, open, close, and lock doors, he even knew how to get his applesauce out of the fridge, get himself one of his spoons, and bring it to me so I could feed it to him.

These are all great examples of things to encourage your toddler to learn. Basic (easy for them to learn in small steps) and practical (things they will eventually do independently everyday). The whole point of encouraging these kinds of skills is to make them more independent and capable of doing things they are going to need to be able to do in the future. More tips on parenting toddlers/encouraging basic activities would be putting clothing on, helping to bath themselves, evening flushing the toilet (it's never too early to start potty training but, you can hold off on that one if it makes you more comfortable).

These tips on parenting toddlers are fairly basic but, following these tips can truly make all the difference to your toddler. I want you to take your pick of three activities (it can be one I mentioned above or some you came up with yourself) that you would like your toddler to start doing independently. Then, at least once a day, I want you to encourage your toddler to do it. Once again, do this in steps; show them, talk to them about it as your showing them, try to get them to do it with you or by themselves, then praise there efforts every time they do it right (or close to right, remember Rome wasn't built in a day). Remember, at least once a day and try to make this as consistent as possible (at or around the same time). Once they've mastered an activity, add another in it's place.

So, to wrap up/recap these tips on parenting toddlers suggestions, this is what you need to remember. Encouragement is extremely important to the developement of your toddler. Encourage them to do things that you didn't really think about or haven't really encouraged them to do before. Work on encouraging three activities with the steps suggested above. And, finally, enjoy as you watch your toddler bloom from the fruit of your efforts.

Well, that's it for now. Be sure to visit my website for more tips on parenting toddlers and, just so you know, I'll be coming out with more articles/content regarding encouraging your toddler in the near future so, stayed tuned.

Thanks!