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Understanding Early Childhood Development: What Every Parent Should Know

Discover all the phases of early childhood development and how as a parent, you can support your child learning endeavours. Dive in!

One of the most satisfying aspects of parenting is seeing your child develop and learn.  Every small accomplishment, from their first steps to their first chuckle, is significant. Given the abundance of data available about early life development, knowing exactly what your child needs to flourish might be daunting.

The good news is that you can support your child's development by just knowing a few important phases and giving them the correct surroundings, tools, and play experiences.


The First Year: Sensory Exploration & Movement

Discovery rules the first year of existence. Through their senses—touching, tasting, seeing, and hearing everything around them—babies learn. Development of fine and gross motor abilities, coordination, and curiosity depends on this stage.

  1. Give your child safe, tactile toys to explore and support this stage. Remember that the toys' textures, shapes, and colours pique their senses. Catchy toys attract them.  

  2. Boost strength and coordination by encouraging tummy time and crawling.  

  3. Talk, sing, and read to your child to enable word and sound recognition.  

Our wooden baby toys for newborns, like the musical set, are ideal for children to develop sensory and hearing capabilities. While younger babies may just love touching and feeling the wooden forms, the older ones will start to grasp, hold them, and finally sort them into the proper slots—building their problem-solving skills without even realising it!  


Toddlerhood (1–3 Years): Independence & Hands-On Learning  

Your child becomes a little explorer with limitless energy once they enter the toddler age. This stage is when kids begin to grow in coordination, capacity for solving problems, and independence. Whether it's cooking, cleaning, or even shopping, they like to replicate what they observe adults doing.  

 

How You Can Support This Stage:

  1. Offer chances for practical play to strengthen fine motor abilities.  

  2. Using interactive toys and basic puzzles, inspire problem-solving.  

  3. Let kids role-play, copying real-life events to foster imagination and social skills.  

One excellent approach to initiate pretend play is with our wooden play kitchen. Children can cook just like their parents; better coordinating and creatively enhancing daily activities helps them grasp them.  

As kids buy and sell, the wooden play shop plays a step further, teaching them about food, shopping, and even early math ideas.  

These kinds of toys encourage confidence and independence, therefore enabling toddlers to feel like competent small people enjoying fun.  


Preschool Years (3-5 Years): Creativity & Problem-Solving 

Children's creative, communicative, and problem-solving abilities start to blossom as they get ready for preschool. Many of them start asking questions and adopting more ordered thinking. Along with developing vital social skills, they start playing more cooperatively with other kids.  


How You Can Support This Stage:

  1. Offer toys that inspire imagination and storytelling.  

  2. Incorporate simple problem-solving exercises via interactive games and puzzles.  

  3. Plan playdates or include them in group activities to foster social play.  

Our activity boards offer children an intriguing approach to develop their make-believe stories while learning problem-solving skills, thereby igniting their imagination and curiosity.  

These toys encourage children to think creatively and develop skills that are beneficial both within and beyond the classroom setting.  


Getting Ready for School: Social Skills and Critical Thinking

Children's play gets more complicated as they age. They begin to grasp rules, build friendships, and confidently solve problems. At this stage, they are developing patience, collaboration, and logical thinking skills.  


How You Can Support This Stage: 

  1. Promote deliberate, planned decision-making and structured play.  

  2. Offer chances for group projects and cooperative play.  

  3. Provide activities challenging their perspective without aggravating them.  

Our wooden kitchen set teaches children organisation and patience, as well as how to complete their duties with responsibility and ownership.  

Early mathematical ideas like counting and sorting are introduced in the wooden play shop in an intriguing and entertaining manner, ready for use in the classroom.  

The right toys at this age enable kids to grow responsible and cooperative, so prepare them for the classroom discipline in their foundation years with Barnshenn.


Why Play Matters More Than You Could Possibly Know

Though it's easy to undervalue play. It is actually among the most crucial means of learning for young children. By means of play, youngsters acquire hand-eye coordination, patience, and even emotional intelligence, as well as problem-solving ability.  

For this reason, at Barnshenn, we design toys with significance in addition to fun. Toys that evolve with your child inspire independence in toddlers, creativity in preschoolers, and confidence in young students.  


Final Thoughts

Encouragement of your child's development need not be difficult. Understanding their needs at every level and giving them the appropriate tools will help you to make ordinary events worthwhile teaching opportunities.  

Barnshenn's toys are meant to make learning fun, interesting, and stress-free for parents—from a shape sorter toy for a curious newborn to a play kitchen set for an imaginative toddler to a grocery shop set for a preschooler to act and learn numbers and counting.

Childhood has to be about play, creativity, and discovery, after all. Your child will also be ready to face the world one milestone at a time with the correct assistance in their early years, and that comes with the right play rituals.

We hope that the guide above gave you useful insights and will help you find the next best toy for your kids. Explore our entire collection of toys at Barnshenn for newborns and toddlers. Are you in search of additional inspiration? Hop on to our social media handles, like TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram, for more gift inspiration for toddlers. See you in the next blog.

About the Author

Aayush Garg

Aayush, founder of Barnshenn, studied engineering at the University of Manchester. He designs Montessori-inspired toys crafted from sustainable materials, promoting screen-free, eco-friendly play. His expertise ensures safe, developmentally enriching toys