Toddlerhood: a stage of great change

The toddler years - from age one to age three years - are the biggest period of change your child will ever experience. And as you’re right there alongside them it can be a period of great change for you too. In this blog we’re going to discuss what’s going on for your toddler and next time we’ll talk through supporting your toddler with everyday difficulties.

Brain development: By age three your child’s brain has reached around 80-90% of its adult size, starting from 25% at birth. During the toddler years, just like the baby years, your child’s brain is forming connections with every new experience and interaction with others. The toddler brain is also experiencing something called ‘pruning’. This means that the brain snips away the connections that aren’t used very often. This is one of the reasons why it isn’t necessary to be a perfect parent; connections in the brain that are linked to experiences that happen less frequently are pruned away.

Language development: During the toddler phase your child is learning language at a rapid rate. Starting from the babbling and practising of turn-taking at age one they quickly move on to sentences and even sometimes conversations at age three.

Cognitive development: As well as language your child’s brain development means they are able to start to consider complex ideas such as solving problems. However, these skills take many many years to develop - this is just the beginning!

Relationships: At around age three children can start to enjoy interacting with other children, before this they usually prefer to interact with adults or to play alongside, rather than directly with, other children. Although their world is widening, you are still their most important relationship.

Independence: Toddlers are known for their love of independence! It can be a difficult adjustment for some parents to go from a fully dependent baby to a toddler who wants - but isn’t necessarily able - to be fully independent. It is important to get the balance right between enabling them to do as much as possible themselves while also not expecting too much of them, especially when it comes to things like managing their emotions - skills which take decades to develop. For more on how emotional regulation skills develop see our previous blogs here and here (link to two emotional regulation blogs).

The toddler years are amazing, and at times frustrating. You’ll likely start to get a sense of who your little person will be in years to come. They can seem so big and grown up compared to only a few months ago but they still have a long way to go in terms of social and emotional development. In our next blog we’ll share some tips for supporting them through these changes.