milestones children do alone and milestones you need to teach them.

[ikeaismylocal]

Assuming that a child has a reasonably stimulating environment am I right that they just sit,crawl, walk and talk when they are ready, you don't have to teach them to do these things?


What milestones are there that you need to teach your child? Things like using cutlery I guess they don't just start doing one day you need to show them how to do it.

Are there other milestones we should be working on? Ds is 16 months.

[ExBrightonBell]

I don't think you specifically have to teach them milestones, more give them opportunities and encourage them.

So for example with cutlery, I would just provide it with each meal and praise any attempt to use it. Obviously they can watch you use your cutlery which helps model it for them.

As they get older and more verbal, then you have more opportunities to explain things and it can be easier to help them work things out.

[addictedtosugar]

there is a thread here about please and thank-you, which needs to be moddled so they get the idea, imo.

[deadwitchproject]

ikea I have been thinking about the same thing recently. My DTSs are 15 months old and one can kick a ball quite well and the other only started walking 2 weeks ago. Looking back I think my DH may have encouraged DTS2 to kick a ball and now I feel guilty that we may have somehow let DTS1 down by not doing the same.
I've looked at developmental milestone charts and they are not always clear on timescales except to say each child is different (which of course is true...)