Problem Solving The Baby Way

 What infants, toddlers, and children do best to learn, is explore! From a very tiny age babies are learning  lessons of cause and effect. When parents interact with their child with love and trust, children start to make sense of the world around them. (For more information on child Cognitive Development from ages 0-3 click here ).  

Exploring, making faces, picking up a book and wanting to be read to, are some of the many ways your child starts to problem solve. If you want to track your child's problem solving development, click here!

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             Problem Solving Milestones

Birth to 3 Months

Watches faces

Moves or makes noises to get attention

Learning to manage sleep/wake states

4 to 6 Months

Explores textures/objects: touch, mouthing, banging

Repeating pleasurable activities

Simple object and people permanence

7 to 9 Months

Imitating sounds and gestures

Repetitive cause & effect play

Combines related objects in play 

9 to 12 Months

Simple trial and error

Playing with toys with their intended purpose

Searches for hidden or missing objects – harder to distract

12 to 24 Months

Imitates adult activities

Matching and sorting – recognizing similarities

Pretend play with realistic and then non-realistic props

24 to 36 Months

Sustained attention to preferred activities (15-60 min)

Enjoys stories and books

Pretend play with real life and emotional themes 

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Here are some fun activities that you can do with your child to help them learn how to problem solve :

BOOKS
Sharing Books: look at books together, point to and label pictures, share excitement about what the child sees and is interested in, tell stories about the pictures instead of reading the words only.

BALLS
Balls and Bins:  Play with different size balls and bowls or boxes.  Play with how many balls you can get in a container or which balls are too big or small for a certain container.  Talk about the problem-solving process with your child as you play.

BLOCKS
10 Ways to Play with a Block: Stack and crash, line up to make a train, come up with as many ways to play with the blocks as you can.

These are just some examples of Problem Solving skills. Each child develops differently, if you are concerned about your child's development contact us here!