At times, especially when your child is rushing from activity to activity, her attention span may seem so short! But at 2-3 years old, her ability to concentrate is growing.¹ Due to her great Engagement and Persistence, she will soon be able to focus on goal-oriented tasks for longer periods of time. Young children who develop persistence, the ability to solve a problem or focus on a task for a reasonable period of time,² often have greater involvement in their learning, and have been found to experience less developmental delays³ and later on achieve more academic success.⁴ But the key to building persistence is getting your child interested and motivated to stay engaged!

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

You can help your child take on purposeful tasks and not give up by encouraging her to explore activities that she personally values and has interest in, which will keep her naturally motivated.² While you don’t want to make her activities and experiences dependent on your instruction and approval (extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation),² you do want to stay active and offer her support and guidance when needed. Why? Well, research shows that positive parent and caregiver involvement results in the best chances of developing persistence,³cognitive abilities,³ and school engagement and attendance.⁵

The good news is that your busy toddler is already motivated to engage in and explore the world around her now. She’ll spend plenty of time studying things and figuring out how they work.⁶ While she spent a lot of time learning by making “voluntary, purposeful movements” to change and test her environment from the ages of 9-24 months, she will now be shifting to a more active role and carrying out a “sequence of events in order to achieve a goal.”²

Now is a good time to encourage your toddler to do more Understanding Construction play. With a stronger understanding of the properties and features of objects (Science Knowledge), she’ll be able to build more complicated block structures using 6 or more blocks and take apart and put together toys with moving parts and buttons. Help your child explore these new and more advanced play activities. Over time, it will help build her Engagement and Persistence, in addition to Reasoning and Problem Solving, Self-Control, and language development skills. By developing the important life skill of Engagement and Persistence, she will be “school ready” and able to take on challenging tasks and problems, follow instructions from teachers, and work with other students in group activities.⁷

Play Tips:

Do you want to know how you can support your child’s development of Engagement and Persistence and Understanding Construction skills at this age? It’s easy! Read on for some simple tips to incorporate into your daily play time together.

1. Spend time with your toddler building with a variety of materials. Toys that light up and have musical buttons to push are great for a few minutes of simple entertainment, but for real learning to occur, your child needs to be appropriately challenged so that she can develop and build more advanced information and knowledge.⁸ Building with blocks, assembling puzzles, taking apart and putting together pull-apart toys, and playing with sand and water tables are all great ways to incorporate constructive play into her routines. Talk to her about what she is working on and ask questions about how she built her structure or how the toy works.⁶ You may be surprised at the amount of thought she has put into her design!
2. Allow your toddler to “learn by doing.” Toddlers are fascinated by the way things work. Help build your child’s sense of independence, an important ingredient to intrinsic (internal) motivation and engagement, by letting her take charge of safe and appropriate decisions. Let her play with the volume on your music player, turn light switches on and off, or honk the horn in your car. You’ll find that letting her figure out how things work on her own is far more powerful and effective than being told outright!
3. Make real world Understanding Construction connections. Talk to your child about building or construction by highlighting the different building structures or objects that can be constructed, the types of vehicles and equipment used in the process, and the various jobs in the field. If there are any homes or other buildings being constructed or renovated in your area, take a walk or drive past them and point out what the people are doing and what equipment they’re using. This is not only a great way to expand her concept of how things are built, but it also strengthens her Appreciation of Community. Be sure to focus on topics that are interesting to her. For instance, if she likes learning about farm animals, talk about the prospect of building a farm house or a barn. If she loves playing dress up, explore the possibility of sewing clothes or opening a clothing store to shop in.

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Developmental Milestones:

Has your baby achieved the following Engagement and Persistence and Understanding Construction developmental milestones yet? If yes, check off all the skill(s) she has already mastered to date using Playful Bee’s developmental milestones tracker. It’s absolutely FREE and easy to use, just click HERE!

• Builds towers of 6+ blocks.
• Plays with toys with buttons and moving parts.

Sources:

¹District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education (2008). District of Columbia Early Learning Standards for Infants and Toddlers.

²National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Motivating Learning in Young Children. NASP Resources. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://www.nasponline.org/resources/home_school/earlychildmotiv_ho.aspx.

³Banerjee, Poornam N. and Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine S. (2007). Infants’ Persistence and Mothers’ Teaching as Predictors of Toddlers’ Cognitive Development. Infant Behavior and Development, 30(3), pp. 479-491.

⁴Lawrence, Julia (2012). Paying Attention, Persistence are Keys to Academic Success. Education News. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://www.educationnews.org/parenting/paying-attention-persistence-are-keys-to-academic-success/.

⁵Hadfield, Joe (2012). Persistence is Learned from Fathers, Study Shows. Brigham Young University: News Release. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://news.byu.edu/archive12-jun-persistence.aspx.

⁶New Jersey Council for Young Children (2013). New Jersey Birth to Three: Early Learning Standards.

⁷The Head Start Leaders Guide to Positive Child Outcomes (2003). Domain 7: Approaches to Learning. Head Start, Office of the Administration for Children and Families Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC). Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/teaching/eecd/individualization/temperament/edudev_art_00017txt_061705.html#Top.

⁸Christakis, Dimitri A.; Zimmerman, Frederick J.; and Garrison, Michelle M. (2007). Effect of Block Play on Language Acquisition and Attention in Toddlers. JAMA Pediatrics (formerly Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine), 161(10), pp. 967-971. Retrieved on March 19, 2014, from http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=571274.

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Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee

Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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