ABSTRACT
Developmental capacities increase tremendously in toddlerhood in all domains. In gross motor development, walking independently, but also climbing, jumping, and running, need parental attention. Increase in fine motor capacities allows exploring and playing with small objects, drawing, building, and making puzzles, as well as starting to use utensils like spoon and fork or scissors. Cognitive development during toddlerhood is mostly about gaining a better understanding of how the world works. To this end, toddlers actively explore new objects and deliberately try out actions to investigate their consequences. To enable goal-directed action and adaptive responses to novel, complex, or ambiguous situations, the child develops higher-order cognitive functions, such as inhibitory control, working memory, and attentional flexibility. Supported by the rapid growth in cognition, language, and mobility, toddlers become more sociable and more competent in their interactions with adults and other children. Once toddlers start to see themselves as active agents, independent of others, they actively start to assert their newfound autonomy.
