What really matters- Picking up on the household rules- In any household, we have lots of rules that our toddlers have to pick up on. For example, eating food only in the kitchen; putting water glasses on a coaster are rules, putting things away in the closet and such are all little rules for a household that our Toddlers clearly begin to learn and show us little signs that they are picking up on these.

How to put it into practice-

Tuning In- We usually have a bunch of these rules associated with Mealtime and eating and Whit showed us little signals that she was getting it. Watch the “Eat in the Kitchen” video to the right. Whitney certainly has brought the food out of the kitchen and even tries to open it in the family room. However, her emerging concept of the rule leads her to take it back to the kitchen to eat. Likewise, the “Cups on Coasters” video shows she is picking up on the idea or social convention that drinks need to be placed on some coaster type thing, in this case a card (click on vid to right).

Bridging-  These little vignettes reveal the importance for what we actually do around the house. Instead of what we say, our toddlers are really good at noticing what we do and the models we provide. If we want our toddlers to begin to follow some of these rules like eating in the kitchen we need to consistently do that instead of munching in front of the TV