3-min read
2025-08-26
3-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 first years of life, little one’s living in the now, with no concept of the future. In month 18, we explored how tantrums emerge as little one attempts to understand time and limits.
This is where you come in. Setting loving and consistent limits around what little one can and cannot do helps them establish a sense of “later” and develop the ability to delay gratification, a key to impulse control and self-regulation as they age.
Don’t think of limits as limiting. Limits help little one:
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Feel safe, secure, and cared for
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Manage their behavior in response to stimuli
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Figure out alternate ways to express themselves within the safety of boundaries
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Understand risks and consequences and cause and effect
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Learn how to set their own limits
Brain-Building Activity
Freeze!
Routine: Anytime
Some of childhood’s most beloved games test and improve the ability to follow directions and respect boundaries. This classic is as simple as it gets, and you can use the word “freeze!” in daily life for an immediate response.
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Introduce the game, explaining that when you say “Freeze!” little one has to stop what they’re doing and be completely still.
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Encourage little one to wiggle, dance, and move around, then say “Freeze!” It may take a few tries before they get the hang of it.
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Play Freeze! when you’re looking for a low-lift way to engage little one or get the sillies out. Add more players to mix things up. (Grandpas can be surprisingly competitive at Freeze!) Eventually, little one can lead the game.
You’ve Got This
Little one is bound to push your buttons by testing limits and boundaries. Talk with their other caregivers—your partner, co-parent, or nanny, if you have one—about the limits you want to set as a family.
Limits look different to all of us. Setting a few you can all agree on and uphold will make daily life easier for everyone. As little one grows, these limits can be revisited and evolve to fit changing needs, interests, and routines.
