Ok, so my 16 month old has been getting frustrated lately when she can't do something.
She will try once or twice to get a shape in the right hole and if she doesn't get it in the hole, she will whine and throw the plastic shape. When this happens...i tell her lets try again and i guide her hands sometimes and sometimes she tries again and gets it in on her own. Then we cheer and clap and we are all excited. Everyone is happy!
She also has this little toy dog on a string that you pull and the ears and tail moves. This one really frustrates her so much that she starts to cry when she gets frustrated with it. I have put the dog away for a couple of weeks and this weekend thought we would try it again. So, i walked around the house pulling it on the string and she thought this was so great! She was walking in front of the dog, kept looking down at it and smiling. I told her to try and she was excited to take the string, but she was immediately frustrated with the toy. I tried to get her to walk and told her to pull (she knows how to pull) and she got frustrated and started crying. I distracted her with a book and put the dog away.
Is this normal for a 16 month old to get frustrated this easily? Should i leave the dog out and eventually she will figure it out in time? How do you handle things like this?
just~me
yeah, that's pretty normal.
yeah, that's pretty normal. Her intellectual development and her physical development aren't synced up right now. So she thinks she can physically do things that she can't quite do yet. And that's frustrating.
I'm of the opinion that some frustration is a good thing. And that you should offer a hand after she's tried it herself a few times (which you are doing). Put the dog away for now, and bring it back out in the summer. She'll be farther along then, it'll probably be easier for her to master.
The frustration behavior will ebb and flow as she gets good at something she was bad at and moves on to something else she's bad at (being understood while talking is a big frustration point).
Yes, this is perfectly
Yes, this is perfectly normal - similar to my day - trying to send files too big for AOL to the printer. Frustration is a good thing, its true. I have listened to many an early learner grunt while learning to open a lunch box, put on a shoe, apron, use a tong, place puzzle pieces in the right spot, etc.
I have also heard many a child whine saying, "I can't do it," while doing it! Of course, I'm talking about children that are a bit older however, several started school at your daughter's age.
Perhaps you need to find a pull toy(s) that is easier for her manuever. I would keep the dog out since she loves it so much. Having choices that a child can easily master and ones that are within reach developmentally is the key to instilling self-reliance and confidence. Its also important that she has activities that she can figure out without your guidance.
Exploration is the key, and setting up an environment that promotes successful as well as frustrating activities. Perhaps you can put out a few transferring activities that don't discern shapes. Maybe the pieces are too small for her to see the difference or she has not developed the hand-eye coordination for that particular shape sorter. You could also put out a wide mouthed jar along side of it so she can have the choice of getting it into something (which is nirvana) or struggling with the more difficult sorter. (old fashioned large clothespins work nice for transferring into jars.)
Little ones love to emulate and help mom and dad.
Here is a link to Michael Olaf - a bit about child development - one to three.
http://www.michaelolaf.net/1JC13FE.html
Jan Katzen-Luchenta
Author - Nutrition for Learning:Feeding the Starving Brain - Foresight nutritional counselor- Montessori educator - www.nutritionforlearning.com
I watch small children in my
I watch small children in my home and one of the 15 month olds use to get extremely fussy and loud when he couldn't do something by himself. I have to say he was worse than any of the other 3 children his age. He is getting much better now because he knows that it don't get my attention. Now, when he gets a toy stuck I just wait for him to figure it out on his own and he usually always does and thats when I give him my attention.
One Happy Mom in Arizona.
I agree with the other
I agree with the other moms--a little frustration can be a good thing. I have an easily frustrated little one, too, and it used to pain me to watch him struggle with something, then bawl about it. I so wanted to jump in and do it for him but gut instinct told me let him figure it out himself. Or, maybe it was because I watched that movie "Ray" (about Ray Charles) and it showed his mother letting him trip all over the place as a blind little boy, refusing to do things for him because she knew his life would be even harder if he couldn't do things for himself. That KILLED me to watch, but I understood what she was trying to do even if I could never have actually pulled that off myself. Anyway, now that my son is 2 1/2--he still gets frustrated easily but when I ask him "Do you want my help?" he says, "No, I'll do it." Maybe that's a good thing?
Just an aside here...toy
Just an aside here...toy manufacturers make the strings on pull toys short because of the choke factor, but, if the strings were a little bit longer, they would be easier for kids to pull along the floor! It's a catch-22 situation.