With the first birthday, the transition period from infancy to childhood begins. There is progress in the 1-year-old child's ability to understand, grasp and communicate with adults. The ability to move increases. He started to crawl faster and now walk slowly. The first words and first steps occur around the age of 1. With walking, he begins to explore his environment more and learns something new every day. He says a few words. It makes various sounds. He imitates the sounds he hears. He understands more than he can speak. He is meaningfully interested in pictures, colorful objects, and objects that make sounds that he can control, and he realizes that he can control all these objects.
A 1-year-old child begins to realize that he can control the outside world. Now, in addition to meeting basic care needs, environments must be created and opportunities must be provided for exploration and learning. With the age of 1, rules should gradually begin to be established. The child who gains freedom of movement constantly wants to explore new places, rummage through cabinets and drawers, crumple and tear the papers he finds, and play with household items. He is unaware of the danger and acts in ways that may put him in danger. Therefore, as the child begins to crawl, the need to set rules emerges. The most common method used by parents is to say "don't do it" or even get angry. Instead, it is necessary to say "No, it cannot be done" and take various security measures such as locking the cabinet doors and removing items that may endanger the child's life out of reach. At this age, the child cannot fully understand that rules are rules. For this reason, appropriate approaches are to reinforce desired behaviors by saying "well done" and applauding, and to extinguish undesirable behaviors by saying "no" and sometimes ignoring them. The most important advantage of this age is that the child's attention can be easily directed to the desired direction. In other words, when the child turns to an object that is inappropriate or could harm him/her, his/her attention may be drawn to another object or activity. Curiosity is one of the most important characteristics of this age. While trying to prevent the child, his curiosity should not be extinguished. Providing appropriate play materials for his efforts to explore the outside world Interest and curiosity should be satisfied. The education and approach to the child during this period causes the child to develop feelings of trust or insecurity. In the first year, the baby learns to trust. He knows that his mother is with him in every situation and condition and that she will meet all his needs, and he enjoys the confidence of this. For this reason, it is known that mothers who cannot establish close and healthy communication with their babies in the first year cannot establish a safe relationship with their children in the following years. The feeling of trust between mother and baby forms the basis of the relationships a person will establish with others in the coming years. Around the age of one, the child is expected to feel the comfort of trusting the mother. Along with this, the mother also feels relief. While previously there was a more bonded relationship, as of one year of age, his tolerance for being separated from his mother for longer periods of time has increased because he feels the security of his mother's presence.
Language Development:
The one-year-old child enjoys being with people. He likes to listen to what is said. The first meaningful words appear at the age of 1. He tries to imitate the sounds he hears. Says some words differently. Instead of “water” he says “this”. Sometimes, instead of saying the word, he may prefer to use the symbol that expresses it. For example, “dut düt” instead of car, “atta” instead of traveling. Since adults like this kind of incomplete and babyish speech, they also use the same words and sounds when talking to the child. However, adults' adoption and use of these symbols delays the use of the real form of the word. Therefore, it is important for language development that the child always hears the real form of the word from the adult.
The Importance of Being a Model:
Parental behavior in this period is very important as the 1-year-old child examines his/her surroundings more carefully. He tries to imitate many behaviors. He takes his parents and his caregivers as models and tries to do what they do. The child learns appropriate and inappropriate behaviors through modeling behavior. Begins to imitate emotional expressions. He carefully examines how his parents show love and anger and imitates them. Behaviors such as throwing and hitting during this period generally occur as a result of imitating the behavior of parents.
Games and Toys:
The 1-year-old child throws the shapes through the appropriate holes and puts the objects inside each other and on top of each other. Shows behavior such as clapping and waving. He immediately finds a toy he sees hidden. He can start playing ball in return. At this age, buckets with different shapes, nesting containers, rings arranged from largest to smallest, one-piece puzzles, toys and books that make sounds when pressed, push and push toys that the child can use on his own are materials that can be used to support language, cognitive and motor skills.
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