Teach Your child to share
At age 2 your toddler’s whole world revolves
around what is meaningful to her. She has not made the connection between
sharing for a short time and giving something away forever. She will not
understand this until she is older.
Your toddler is constantly learning and figuring
out how things work. “Does the wheel on this car turn the same on every surface?”
“Do the blocks stack this way or that way?” She will repeat her play over and over
to learn all of these details. When she is asked to give her toy to another child,
erupted.
Your 2-year-old can be happy playing beside other children (called
parallel play). Children this age are curious about what other people are doing,
even if they don’t yet have the social skills to play together.
Set the Stage
Ø You and
other caregivers can start teaching the concept of sharing gradually. Being to
use the words “sharing” and “taking turns” when you see it happen. Praise her
for it. But don’t expect to see it very often! Your child may not share well
until she is 3 to 4.
Ø Label
your own actions too. If you hand your pen to another adult you can say, “I’m
sharing my pen.” Toddlers are excellent observers; your child will watch and
learn to associate the word “sharing” with smiles and pleasant words. This will
make it less scary when you ask her to share.
Ø Don’t
force sharing. When that happens, your toddler learns to associate sharing with
hurt feelings.
Ø If your
child was a few favorite objects that cause problems when friends come to play,
try putting those intis another room. Remind her that she does not need to share all of her favorite toys, but the toys that are us during the play date
are for all the children to use. This will reassure her that she controls over
the world.
Taking Turns
Ø Learning
to take turns is hard for you toddler too. She is asked to give up something
she has AND to wait for it to come back her -not an easy job!
Ø Your
toddler does not yet have the words to negotiate how long a turn will last or
who gets to go first. This adds to her frustration.
Ø Instead
of trying to get toddlers to take turns, have enough toys for everyone or offer
a material that many children can use the same time, like sand or play dough.
You can also encourage trading toys for a brief time instead of having each
child take a turn with her same toy.
Tips
for teaching sharing
Some
ideas when you can point out sharing to your toddler.
· When you
roll a ball to your toddler and ask for its return, you are sharing the ball.
· When two
toddlers are each using a swing in the swing set, they are sharing the swing
set.
· When you
are snuggled on the couch with your toddler, you are sharing couch.
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