A Profile of the Toddler Years

After a child is a little past the first year, he/she has moved beyond babyhood and is becoming much more actively engaged with the surrounding world. This age is a time of rapid development. It marks the beginning of language formation, of curiosity about the surrounding world, and of asking "Why?" about everything. It's a period of intense physical activity as the toddler constantly touches, pushes, shoves and threatens to break things as he/she navigates an exciting new world of objects. It marks the beginning of bladder and elimination control. The toddler now strives for psychological autonomy, and along with this comes the beginning of negativism and resistance to parental authority. But the toddler experiences conflicted states: he/she wants independence, but at times he/she wants the comfort and security of being a baby.