How to Teach Young Children to Be Responsible
Toddlers Learn Responsibility by Helping to Clean Up at Playtime
Jan 8, 2009
Young children begin to learn about responsibility earlier than most people think. Toddlers and pre-school children can be included in helping with family chores when they are able to understand simple instructions and can imitate actions.
How to Introduce Cleaning Up to 9-12 Month Old Children
When children are able to sit up and crawl, parents can play on the floor with them using simple toys and blocks. At the end of play, put the toys in a basket or box and tell the child that it is time to clean up. Do the action of cleaning up the toys with the child. If this is repeated each time the child plays with these things, he will learn clean up is the end part of playing.
Toddlers Love to Play with Things They Can Reach
Once children begin to walk around, they love playing with things they are able to reach. In the kitchen, parents can dedicate a low shelf that children can reach and supply it with items that are easy to handle, like small canned goods and boxes of instant pudding or jello. Children will spend long periods of time playing and being entertained with these reachable food items.
Young children also like to play with plastic bowls, food storage containers, and pots and pans. Having a safe lower drawer that a child is permitted to open and use, can keep a little one happy while parents are in the kitchen.
When finished, help the child put the items back in the drawer or on the shelf and explain that it is time to clean up. Show the child how to do it and praise the child when it is completed. The putting away or cleaning up will soon become part of playing, and the completion of putting things away will be an accomplishment.
[WARNING: Be sure to have the child-safe shelf or drawer away from the stove to avoid accidents from cooking, and have other drawers and cabinets secured with child-proof locks.]
Children Build Self-Esteem with Simple Family Chores
As children increase their vocabulary and understanding of words and actions, parents can use simple words that a young toddler can understand and show the child how to do a task. Simple family chores for toddlers can be something fun to do together and can become part of what is done routinely.
Here are some suggestions for making simple tasks easy for young children:
- Install wooden pegs for hanging up clothes that a child can reach just inside the door, in the coat closet, and in their room.
- Have a child-sized hamper in the room for dirty clothes when they're getting ready for bed.
- Have a toy box in the children’s play area, and have children put toys away in the toy box when finished playing, before dinner and/or at the end of the day.
- Talk about the action of cleaning up with the child as you’re doing it until it becomes routine and something the child will know to do at the end of play.
When children are successful at something like hanging up a coat or sweater or putting toys back into a toy box, they feel accomplished. This accomplishment, although seeming small to the parent, will build self-esteem, and provides the opportunity for the child to do something all by herself.
Cleaning Up & Picking Up Becomes Routine
Most times it seems easier and quicker for parents to do things for young children. It’s usually much easier for parents to pick up toys and put them away when they're in a hurry to leave the house. It's easier for parents to put their youngster’s clothes in the hamper or hang up her jacket when it’s time for bed and parents want some time to themselves.
But with some patient guidance by parents, children learn that cleaning up and putting away can be the end part of play, just as taking the toys out of the box and dumping them on the floor is the beginning part of play. Children will soon begin to have cleaning up and hanging up become a routine part of what they know how to do.
 |
 |
