3-min read
2025-08-26
4-min read
Development isn’t a race. It’s a flow.
Every child—and parent—is figuring it out at their own pace.
Instead of milestones, we encourage you to focus on this amazing moment.
Your child’s brain makes more than one million neural connections per second in these first three years. Simple, consistent interactions with them today can have profound, lifelong benefits.
Here’s how little one’s brain is developing this month, and how you can support their progress.
Developmental Highlight
In the thick of the twos, parents often ask about discipline. For many of us, this d-word is loaded with negative connotations. Discipline is commonly thought to mean punishment for doing something wrong.
But the word discipline has another more constructive meaning. The Latin word disciplina means “instruction and training.” The root discere means “to learn.” For little one—and really, all of us—discipline means practice, not punishment.
Any situation of conflict is an opportunity to practice skill development. When little one does something you asked them not to do—or isn’t doing what you asked them to do—ask yourself what skill you’d like them to learn from this situation. When you reframe misbehavior as a learning opportunity, you can respond in a way that’s more instructive.
Brain-Building Activity
Learning To Listen
Routine: Anytime
The biggest challenge for little one right now is listening and following directions. This requires attention, a critical cognitive skill. Developing listening attention is one of the fundamental ways to reduce the risk of later ADHD symptoms. Help little one learn to listen with these tips:
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Connect before you direct. Ensure little one is with you mentally and physically before you make a request or give direction.
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Ask little one if their “listening ears” are turned on. This is said as a reminder, not to shame.
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Don’t demand eye contact. Some kids this age can’t handle looking and listening at the same time. Eye contact can be intimidating, especially when the request is something little one doesn’t particularly want to do.
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Once you’ve made a request or given direction, lovingly ask little one to repeat it back to you. If they didn’t get it, patiently tell them again.
You’ve Got This
Discipline is consistent practice. For the last 30 months, parenting has been your discipline. You do so much to care for little one, from feeding them to helping them learn through play. As they get older, parenting will remain an important discipline in your life. And you’ll be an even happier, more resilient parent if you can find time for a self-care practice outside of parenting.
Self-care doesn’t have to be an hour-long workout class—or a workout at all. It’s any practice that replenishes your body and spirit, even for just a few minutes at a time. Self-care might be a daily nap, a hobby that brings you joy, or having your own playdate with friends. When you consistently prioritize self-care, you’ll bring more energy and emotional bandwidth to all you do.
