Page 32 - Silver Lakes June Issue 2023

TODAY’S CHILD

TEACHING TODDLERS TO SHARE

By Nicoleen Davies, Life Talk Forum

oddlers can be a force to be This egocentricity is common between the interpersonal relationships and of
reckoned with. Every meltdown, ages of two and seven. That’s because a developing friendships. It also helps to
Trefusal to share and tantrum may be toddler’s pre-frontal cortex, which manages create a social standard.
trying and even embarrassing for a parent, skills such as self-control, planning and
but it is important to remember that this controlling, is still developing, making it You may not realise it, but learning to share
behaviour is developmentally normal at hard for the child to share and control teaches children a variety of social skills –
this age. their impulses and make rational decisions. taking turns, collaborating, cooperating
Please understand that your toddler is not and negotiating. In addition, children learn
These little ones are egocentric and find being selfish. It is simply a developmental that giving rather than taking, and being
it hard to think outside of their own phase where they think they are in control, kind to another person, can be equally
viewpoints because there is, as yet, and it takes patience to teach them to rewarding.
no differentiation between aspects of share and take turns.
themselves and others. They are not yet Teaching sharing
capable of thinking logically. They believe Learning to share is an important The best space to teach a toddler to share
that everyone has the same desires and milestone is through play. It is a gradual process
thoughts as they do and that everyone Learning to share is a fundamental requiring practice, just like learning to walk
sees, hears and feels exactly as they do. foundation of creating and sustaining and talk does.

30 | INTRAMUROS JUNE 2023