What Self-Help Skills Should a Toddler Have?

Toddlers are expected to be able to dress themselves, use the toilet unassisted, pack their own bags and feed themselves without much assistance.

Importance of self-help skills

When toddlers have those skills, they can better practice independence. When they feel independent, this further encourages them to play and explore by themselves. They will start to show initiative and pursue their own interests.

This also helps prepare them for the big school. In the big school or even in the early learning centre for toddlers, there would be less supervision but with more encouragement. The role of the educators will shift more towards facilitating activities instead of guiding children by hand on what to do next. It’s important for children to develop self-help skills and build self-reliance so that they can feel comfortable and become more willing to participate in those activities.

When toddlers start to feel independent, they also feel more confident because they always know what to do and they know that they can always figure things out. They will also better be able to cope with challenging and unfamiliar situations. With their confidence, they will always have that positive feeling of going to the early learning centre or big school.

Other important skills

Aside from self-help skills, toddlers ages 2 to 3 might now be able to express themselves and form simple sentences with two or five words. With this ability, they can now have short conversations with other children and adults as well as talk about their day. At these toddler ages, children are starting to understand basic concepts such as time, opposites and contrast (e.g. this is bigger, this is round while that one is square).

Toddlers might now be able to follow simple instructions and tell you what they want or if they need help. Although toddlers might have already learned a few self-help skills, it’s still important for them to adequately express themselves and learn how to properly ask for help, directions or further clarifications. This way, they can better navigate the situations at home, playground or early learning centre.