Birth to 2

A. Lola has a strong preference for me, with her dad a strong second. This shows that she is forming a secure attachment to both of us. This occurs because my husband and I show Lola that we are loving and caring and she interprets these as good intentions, even if we make a mistake. At 3 months old, Lola is very interested in studying faces and is interested in everything around her. She goes to a home daycare provider when my husband and I are at work.

At 8 months old, Lola is scared of strangers. She has object permanence, but looks in the same spot for the hidden toy even  after she watches me move it. At daycare, Lola cries a little bit when we drop her off, but she usually gets over it fairly quickly. At her 8 month check-up, the doctor says Lola is securely attached to both myself and my husband. She is unsure of new people, such as the doctor and the nurse, which is normal. Although cautious at first, when given time to warm up to new people and situations, Lola verbalizes and makes eye contact a lot. The doctor says that Lola's gross and fine motor skills are advanced for a baby of her age!

B.  We decide to have a developmental assessment done on Lola at 19 months, just to see how she is doing compared to other kids. Lola's temperament has been stable throughout the first 18 months. Lola is a very mentally and physically active child. Lola was more cooperative than aggressive, unless a child tried to take a toy away from her, in which case she resisted. We need to work on her social interactions (she is a bit slow to warm up to new people), so we will try to schedule more play groups to improve her sociability. Lola is not overly emotional. She has a level of self control that you would expect for a 19 month old. My husband and I try to match our behavior to Lola's temperament to ensure a goodness of fit. We let Lola's natural curiosity lead the way. The doctor says that Lola shows good concentration and memory and scored above average in language development, which indicates Lola will be ready for preschool relatively soon!