Picking Your Child's Christmas Gifts | Developmental Approach

In our house instead of going off of a Christmas list, and picking toys my kids think they'll love... I try to be more intentional.

I ANSWER THESE TWO QUESTIONS:

1. What developmental areas does my child need particular attention in this upcoming year?

2. What toys/activities can I get that would support these developmental areas?

THERE ARE FIVE MAIN AREAS THAT CHILDREN DEVELOP.

1. Cognitive Development: This is the child's ability to learn and solve problems. (Intellectual AND academic skills can both fall into this category too)

2. Social and Emotional Development: The child's ability to interact with others, including their own self-control. Sharing space, toys, attention, self-regulation, emotional intelligence, calm down strategies, talking about feelings, empathy, compassion… the list goes on and on.

3. Speech and Language Development: To understand and use language. Speaking, reading, text-rich environment

4. Fine motor skills: Ability to use small muscles, specifically their hands. This is going to look different for each age and stage. Maelie has excellent fine motor skills. We play with stickers, she feeds herself etc. But instead of looking at where she's at according to his age. I look at what skills she has yet to learn and get her working on something beyond her abilities and support her through it. So if your child is 4, maybe that is drawing, maybe it's stringing beads on a necklace, maybe it's the little legos or holding a pencil with 3 fingers.

4. Gross Motor Skills: This is the child's ability to use large muscles. For example, climb, walk, skip.

I want to get my kids’ toys to use their gross motor skills in an appropriate way so they are not balancing on the edge of my couch trying to get the lights.

The more  I have learned about sensory preferences/needs, the more I realize my kids THRIVE with access to gross motor. In the wintertime, it's a lot harder to get outside (bad air, too many snow clothes) so I like to think of ways to make sure gross motor can happen indoors.

K, now that I did an intro on the five areas of development.

THINK TO YOURSELF THESE TWO QUESTIONS:

1. What developmental areas does my child need particular attention in this upcoming year?

2. What toys/activities can I get that would support these developmental areas?

HERE IS THE PROCESS IN REAL LIFE

First, I look at where my kids are developmentally, and how they may grow next.

For example, this year Maelie is learning letters & numbers in preschool plus she usually always needs support in social/emotional development.

So of the five areas, my main focus area will be cognitive development and social/emotional.

After listing out some favorite things and upcoming skills, I come up with some gifts... to support the areas of focus... for example,

• Lovevery kit to support Cognitive Development and fine motor/

• Magnet Tiles (C)

• Emotions dolls (S/E)

• Dollhouse (S/E)

• Letter Puzzle (C)

• Bike (GM)

• Pegboard (FM)

Gift Ideas Below