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This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

9 - Physical Development of Toddlers

from Part 4 - Toddlerhood

Phillip T. Slee
Phillip T. Slee
Affiliation:
Flinders University of South Australia
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Summary

‘You Must Run at Least Twice as Fast as That’

Well, in our country,' said Alice, still panting a little, ‘you'd generally get to somewhere else – if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing’. ‘A slow sort of country’, said the Queen. ‘Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!’.

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

  • Instinct practice play

  • Surplus energy

  • Sensori-motor

  • Development theory

  • Sensori-motor play

  • Symbolic play

  • Logico-mathematical

  • Physical knowledge

  • Father's role

Introduction

As toddlers emerge from infancy, dramatic changes are taking place in their physical development. As far as their mobility is concerned, they are relatively independent of their parents. A glance around any supermarket will usually identify some harried parent trying to control a toddler while attempting frantically to fill their basket or trolley with groceries.

Toddlers have discovered the advantages of standing and walking. Much to their parents' concern they are now able to reach the top of kitchen benches, tables and door knobs, opening up whole new worlds for exploration. Standing on tip-toe they can reach for knives or saucepans. Although a little unsteady on their feet at first, toddlers revel in their new found mobility, charging from room to room in the house, squealing with delight. Stairs are a fatal attraction and the despair of parents.

Type
Chapter
Information
Child, Adolescent and Family Development , pp. 183 - 201
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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