>"Am I a useful train?" young children know what usefulness is, and they want to be useful, and they love being praised for being useful. "Everybody in the fam

>"Am I a useful train?" young children know what usefulness is, and they want to be useful, and they love being praised for being useful. "Everybody in the family pitches in and has a role to play to make dinner and set the table" types of repetitive lessons are very important to children; it's the type of emotional development that neglectful parents don't provide. A lot of children's play is imitating what adults do, preferably alongside adults. If you are typing on a keyboard, either give your child another one or suffer them wanting to touch yours. I'm not an expert, but this ties in with an inherent sense of usefulness and participation.