Imagine that your baby could already read, count and speak two languages, but instead he watches cartoons all day long.
And it’s not about laziness or bad heredity – perhaps you yourself are unknowingly slowing down its growth.
The first enemy of development is routine. "Don't get into trouble", "Don't touch the bug", "Sit still" - these phrases turn the world into a cage.
A child learns about the environment through touch, smell, risk. By forbidding him to fall, get dirty and make mistakes, you deprive him of his main teacher - experience.
The second factor is an excess of toys. A room filled with dolls and cars kills imagination. The brain stops looking for new ways to play when everything is ready.
Try leaving 2-3 toys in sight and hiding the rest. You'll be surprised how a stick turns into a sword and a saucepan into a drum.
And the third, most insidious brake is the fear of parents. “What if he can’t cope?”, “What if he gets hurt?” – your anxiety is transmitted to the child.
He starts to be afraid to try new things because mom gets nervous when he climbs the slide. Give yourself permission to let go of control.
Yes, he will fall, cry, get dirty. But this is how he will learn to get up, wipe away his tears and move on.
But how do you know where the line is between care and overprotection? For example, you see a child trying to tie his shoelaces. It’s easier for you to do it for him — faster and more accurately.
But every time you take away his struggle with the knots, you rob him of his chance to win. Children learn through repetition: 10, 20, 50 times.
And yes, the first shoes will be tied crookedly, and the soup will spill past the plate. But it is these “failures” that create neural connections that will later help solve complex equations.
Another example: you choose for your child who to play with. "Vanya is a bad influence," "Masha is too noisy" - this way you deprive him of the opportunity to develop his own social skills.
Let him figure out for himself who he feels comfortable with, even if it means experiencing betrayal or a fight. These lessons are priceless.
What about early development? Parents often chase fashionable methods: cards from the age of one month, English from the cradle, mental arithmetic at three years.
But a child's brain is not a hard drive that needs to be filled with data. It needs time to integrate information. Overloading leads to the opposite effect: instead of curiosity - apathy, instead of creativity - stereotyped thinking.
Play "trivial" games: hide under the blanket, build houses out of pillows, draw with your fingers on semolina. It is in such moments that creativity and the ability to think outside the box are born.
Remember: Albert Einstein didn't know the multiplication table at age seven, but he spent hours building houses of cards - and that didn't stop him from revolutionizing physics.
Author: Igor Zur