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It's not exactly what the article is talking about but: I have a 2 year old niece. Her family have an attitude of "let her learn for herself" that I've found pr

It's not exactly what the article is talking about but: I have a 2 year old niece. Her family have an attitude of "let her learn for herself" that I've found pretty interesting. They keep a very close eye on her and try to warn her verbally and with demonstrations but don't really stop her from doing anything. So instead of physically separating her from a hot kettle they just go "it's very hot!" and demonstrate by touching it carefully and then pulling their hand away. They let her play with matches. She could pick up on these cues long before she could understand words. But it does look exhausting. And there have been some moments (once she was trotting around holding scissors pointing up in the air) where I've thought "no that's too risky and no amount of careful supervision can prevent injury here". She has also burned herself, but only once. So overall I am pretty impressed, at least in principle, and if I have kids I'll definitely endeavour to try and curb my overprotective instincts.

cpursley 3y ago
This is exactly what we do with our toddler (tell her it’s hot, sharp, etc - mimic a painful reaction). It’s worked really well. She’s only two and will even tell us to “be careful papa, it’s hot” etc). Kids are smart, if you treat them like little adults instead of little helpless goo goo ga ga babies - they will generally pick up on things. Which actually makes it easier on the parents.
lm2s 3y ago
Another way to teach them about hot things is to have something that is uncomfortably hot but won't burn if you touch it for a few seconds*, warn them that it's hot and remove the fingers quickly but let them touch it anyway. They won't burn themselves but will understand what is hot and will understand when you tell them that it's hot. The side effect of this, is that then they might be scared of things that are only slightly hot. But that's something easier and less risky to deal with IMO and they'll eventually understand that there's different levels. *babies/toddlers have a skin that is a lot more sensitive, so this should be taken into consideration.

cpursley 3y ago

This is exactly what we do with our toddler (tell her it’s hot, sharp, etc - mimic a painful reaction). It’s worked really well. She’s only two and will even tell us to “be careful papa, it’s hot” etc). Kids are smart, if you treat them like little adults instead of little helpless goo goo ga ga babies - they will generally pick up on things. Which actually makes it easier on the parents.

lm2s 3y ago

Another way to teach them about hot things is to have something that is uncomfortably hot but won't burn if you touch it for a few seconds*, warn them that it's hot and remove the fingers quickly but let them touch it anyway. They won't burn themselves but will understand what is hot and will understand when you tell them that it's hot. The side effect of this, is that then they might be scared of things that are only slightly hot. But that's something easier and less risky to deal with IMO and they'll eventually understand that there's different levels. *babies/toddlers have a skin that is a lot more sensitive, so this should be taken into consideration.