Joab Developmental Assessments

Parenting is no easy job!

It is heavily influenced by culture, family, and values! There is no manual or cheat sheet!

All parenting styles, though, impact how children behave and feel about themselves and others.

Baumrind (1967, 1980), in attempts to understand parenting styles and their effects, categorised parenting styles into: Authoritarian, Authoritative, and Permissive; after which came Neglectful/ Uninvolved.

Maccoby and Martin (1983) expanded upon this indicating that parenting styles are also influenced by degrees of responsiveness and demandingness.

While researchers believe Authoritative Parenting leads to the healthiest outcomes for children, most types of parenting have their share of pros and cons.

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Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences came into being as he thought traditional intelligence testing based on IQ was too limited.

As with every theory, it has been met with criticism and those who do not agree.

However, it speaks to the fact that we do not all learn the same, and there should be space to teach, educate, and assess children using various methods and methodology.

Most of our local institutions have a liking to Linguistic-Verbal and Logical-Mathematical learners. We should strive, however, to include all forms and types of learning.

One person may most often lean to one type of learning, but he/she can posses a range of learning and ability.

Let’s try to observe our children to see which type of learner they are, then see how best we can accommodate their learning styles.

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Drawing, colouring, writing, zipping, buttoning, climbing, eating, pushing, and pulling all require the strength and development of the (hand and finger) fine motor muscles.

Ways we can assist our children is by allowing them to do as many activities on their own!

Allow them to dress themselves, feed themselves, colour and draw themselves!

The more they practice, the stronger their muscles; and the stronger their muscles, the better able they will be to do activities!

Activities such as cutting, writing, and colouring, strengthen the muscles already in use, but they do not develop them further.

Therefore, other activities and items should be done and used to develop the necessary hand and finger muscles.

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Our children’s primary caregivers are the persons with whom the child spends the most time. A primary caregiver can be a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a teacher, a babysitter, or even a nanny!

We must be cautious of who we allow in our children’s lives, ensuring that he/she attends to the emotional needs of our children!

Inconsistency and/or absenteeism of emotional responsiveness can have negative impacts on our child’s abilities to develop and maintain healthy, trusting peer-relationships, friendships, and intimate relationships with others and the self.

Attachments begin forming from infant-hood, let’s continue to attend to the emotional needs of our infants, toddlers, and preschoolers!

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Grasps can make all the difference!

We can assist our children in developing functional, mature grasps by:
- Developing and strengthening fine motor skills (before putting a writing tool in their hands)
- Not rushing to write/colour
- Developing and strengthening gross motor skills
- Developing and strengthening visual-motor skills
- Focussing on, and explicitly teaching functional, mature grasps

Dysfunctional grasps can be confused with immature grasps. If you are uncertain, don’t hesitate to ask!

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This year, let’s remember to provide “social-emotionally safe” environments for our children.

Let’s support and respect our children’s boundaries.

Let’s create conversations that bring about confidence, self-expression, self-growth, happiness, and self-worth 😀

🎄🎅🏿🙏🏽

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Here’s your shopping cheat sheet!

When shopping, let’s remember to purchase age appropriate and developmentally appropriate toys.

Let’s give the gift of development this year! 🎄 🎁

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