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19th month

Alexander Keith is able to imitate actions or words that he has seen or heard days before. This greatly expands his ability to learn new things.

Alexander Keith also seems to be aware of basic categories, such as big or little, and blue or red. You can tell because of the way he is sorting his toys.

Q: You have not worked these last 18 months. You and your partner talk about how Alexander Keith is doing and your goals for the future and decide.

As a parent I decided to stay with Alexander in the house and be by his side until he reached the age of 3 or when he already goes to school. It doesn’t matter if moving to a safer neighborhood will be longer because what matters most is that Alexander will be raised well by me and by his side until he’s ready.

The preschool that you are considering for Alexander Keith offers low-priced developmental assessments. Alexander Keith is able to enroll when he becomes reasonably well potty-trained. He is 19 months old now. Just to find out how Alexander Keith's development compares to other children of his age at this point, you have an assessment done. The early childhood specialist observes Alexander Keith in free play with other kids and does a little testing of cognitive skills. She reports the following:

Alexander Keith was not very aggressive with the other kids, unless one of them tried to grab a toy from him and then he resisted. The examiner recommended that Alexander Keith continue to go to toddler play groups/daycare to develop his skill in interacting with other children. At home, her general advice for the toddler negativism that was bound to happen at this age was to use clear and simple explanations for rules, warnings andtime outs for misbehavior, and encouragements to "use your words" if Alexander Keith wanted something.

The specialist thought that Alexander Keith was securely attached, but that the communication system between parent and child could be improved. She recommended that both parents try to read Alexander Keith's reactions more carefully and work on interpersonal communication.

The specialist thought that Alexander Keith was slow to warm up to new situations with adults, but that if you gave him time, he usually came around.

The examiner observed Alexander Keith become moody and irritable several times during the play session, when things did not go his way. The examiner recommended that you help Alexander Keith regulate his moods gradually by not overreacting to mood changes, and by patiently waiting for him to calm down and communicate his desires.

Alexander Keith scored above average in all aspects of language development, and is ready to be read aloud to more frequently, as he can follow typical story lines. The examiner also noted that his memory was pretty good and recommended that you frequently ask Alexander Keith to recount experiences as a way of encouraging more language growth.

Alexander Keith was age-appropriate on tasks such as building a block tower to model one made by the examiner and other spatial skills such as copying shapes, coloring within the lines and solving picture puzzles.

Alexander Keith was about average for gross motor development. The examiner recommended that you give him plenty of opportunities to play on indoor and outdoor play gyms and to play games of catch and kickball with you.

The examiner commented that Alexander Keith was able to concentrate very well during all of the informal testing, and if this continues, he would be more than ready for preschool-type activities, which typically require children to stay on task or remain in "group time" for 10-15 minutes. She also recommended getting Alexander Keith to follow simple directions at home, gradually increasing the complexity and length of the directions.