The foundations for making friends and getting along with others develop very early in life. In the second year of life, a toddler's relationship with his parents is the most important relationship to him; he is also actively developing other relationships with his age-mates. A toddler's social relationships both within and beyond the family, influence his overall development. Your child also gets affected by the relationship that exist between his parents; emotions such as anger, love that flow around certainly affect your child. Many toddlers this age have yet to start truly talking although the average 16 month-old has a speaking vocabulary of over fifty different words.

• imitate activities
• scribble

• use 3 words
• dump an object in imitation

Things your toddler may possibly do AT THIS STAGE

• use six words
• run

• kick a ball forward
• brush teeth with help

To a small child, a toddler's larger than life parents know everything, can do anything, are always right and therefore are perfect. Children who are taught that everyone, including parents, teachers make mistakes can feel free to grow up trying to do their best and to take calculated risks without fearing failure.

• Don't demand perfection in your toddler. Expecting more than your toddler can deliver can be daunting, discouraging and damaging to the self-esteem. Expectations about behavior, skills, grasping power should be age-appropriate and tailored according to child's ability and temperament. However that does not mean that you should set low expectations; children who are not required to meet challenges and take risks usually fail to learn self-discipline. They are denied the ego-boost that comes with awareness.

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• Don't hide your mistakes from your toddler. It is important for children to see that parents aren't infallible and that they are willing to accept it. When you lose your temper or forget to buy your toddler's favorite fruit or toy, admit you have goofed and apologize. You are also setting an example with your behavior of apologizing where it is due.

• Don't demand perfection of yourself; there is no such thing as perfect parents. Forgive yourself when you do not live up to your own expectations. Most of us make mistakes fairly often as parents. We need to recognize mistakes, learn from them and move on.

• Forgive your child's mistakes fully and completely. Provide unconditional acceptance. Never withdraw affection because your toddler made a mistake or achievements fell short. The occasional outburst over a messy mistake is only human; just make sure your toddler is aware that your love never wavers even when your temper does.

Children who feel free to risk making mistakes, who don't feel pressured to be perfect actually perform at higher levels than those who are always worried about the need to achieve perfection. They also grow up feeling better about themselves and are less likely to suffer from a lack of self-esteem, less likely to turn to substance abuse, less likely to suffer severe depression.

Peer play helps your toddler develop simple social skills that continue to mature as he grows. Among other things, he also learns new games. Most 16 month-olds really like spending time and interacting within their own age group. Upon introduction, some toddlers dive into action and start playing with the other child; others hesitate due to shyness and prefer to stay close to their parents in the start. They prefer to size up the child, the situation before going forward; if shyness persists, some encouragement from you will be helpful. Whether old friends or new, the following behaviors are quite typical.

Watching.

All toddlers spend a lot of time looking at things; toddlers and adults learn a lot just by looking. Sometimes your child will stare openly at the other toddler or secretly watch from the corner of his eye. Watching increases as they become more familiar with their peers.

Solitary Play.

Two toddlers when put together will often play separately but near one another with their own toy. They may not play together but they enjoy being near each other playing separately; they probably enjoy this feeling of togetherness.

Parallel Play.

Sometimes you will notice that play entails a certain amount of interaction. Often it seems that they are ignoring each other but in fact they are playing with similar objects, which means they are not only noticing each other but also silently modeling one another's behavior. This is called parallel play.

Imitation.

Toddlers like to imitate each other more openly. A good percentage of toddler reactions are some type of imitation. The most common imitations included copying one another's sounds: laughing, cheering, shouting, sighing, squealing and the like.

Play with objects.

Toddlers spend a lot of time playing with toys in each other's company; sometimes each kid plays with a toy alone, sometimes this play involves subtle or direct imitation. Toddlers often show or offer toys as a way of engaging in social interaction since they don't know how to engage each other verbally. Snatching each other's toys is a common part of development. Grabbing toys is thought to be a way your toddler discovers how much power he has in relation to another person; it is considered a positive step by psychologists in developing his self-concept. At this stage you don't need to intervene unless it escalates into a fight; let the children work out the struggle themselves. However if one child is always having his toy snatched, you might encourage him to stand up for himself and not give in every time.

Parent's Role.

You don't really need to do anything special to encourage your toddler's social skills aside from making sure he has contact with his age-mates and enough of toys to play with. It is not advisable to leave them alone either. One reason for supervision is they often treat each other as objects; usually these pokes and probes are gentle but should they get rough, your intervention is necessary. Stop the child as you explain to him that he must not pull hair, must not poke in the face or must not bite. All these actions hurt. Be clear and emphatic, not angry. Let your child know these actions are not acceptable without giving him the feeling that you are rejecting him. Be calm in dealing with what is considered normal toddler behavior; overreaction on your part is detrimental. When two toddlers get together, don't leave them alone for too long and assume silence implies they should not be disturbed; they may be absorbed in some unwanted activity.

It is extremely appropriate for your toddler to be fearful of strangers, considering your child's age. Stranger suspicion is very common during this phase. Unlike stranger anxiety experienced during infanthood, stranger suspicion is a more rational fear - though it may not seem rational to you. Since your toddler is more capable of complex thoughts now, she is also more capable of complex fears. During this suspicious time, every grown up who isn't Mummy or Daddy can be viewed with suspicion: a neighbor, a friend, a baby-sitter, even a once accepted grandparent or relative may receive the distrust treatment. While this can be embarrassing for you, it is actually not an altogether bad trait. In fact if you think about it, it is comforting to know that your toddler won't walk off with just about anyone who offers him a bisquit. Fear may not be only factor governing this reaction; annoyance may be the other element. Consider how you would feel if someone you barely know came up to you and without your permission patted your head, pinched your cheek, tickled your tummy, hugged you, picked you up or asked you silly questions? For a toddler whose exposure to the world of manners has been limited, a civil response is often next to impossible. Stranger suspicion will eventually come to an end; sooner in some children and later in others. Since it is impossible to shield your toddler from other people completely while he grows out of this phase, these tips might help.

Give physical support.

If your toddler wants to be held while in the company of strangers, hold her for as long as she needs it. She will let you know when she is ready to go it alone. In the meantime be reassuring and understanding and don't demean or tease her with comments.

Try more exposure.

Your toddler will thaw faster if she is exposed to a wide variety of familiar and unfamiliar people regularly; take her to the supermarket, zoo, religious, social and family gatherings, playground and go for walks down crowded streets. Don't be pushy though and force her into interaction; being in the midst of strangers is enough for now.

Don't push it.

Often parents worry about the rejected person's feelings than those of their child, especially if the stranger is a relative or friend. So they may push a reluctant child towards the stranger despite the tears and tantrums. Strangely your child will feel more secure if you handle her fear with respect and understanding than if you pressure her to overcome it. Between the two, the stranger as an adult should be more understanding of the situation versus the toddler who lacks the maturity to comprehend.

It is quite another thing to teach your child to love reading. While most experts agree that teaching a child to read - to recognize letters and sound out words and string words into sentences - is a process best left until the child is ready, teaching a child to love reading is a process that can start long before he or she knows an 'A' from a 'Z'.

Be selective.

Choose books with large, clear, bright, realistic but cheerful illustrations with short, simple text. Though most toddlers prefer rhyming books, now is a good time to start introducing some very simple stories in prose. Heavy board books with spiral bindings are ideal for your toddler to 'read' alone. Skip cloth books and vinyl books.

Be persistent.

Many toddlers do little but squirm the first few times you read to him but persistence pays off. Establish a regular reading time at least once a day (best times are after bath and before bed time). Even if it lasts just a few pages, and even if your toddler seems more interested in puttering with a new toy or climbing on and off the bed, story time will ultimately become a ritual. Never force your toddler to pay attention to a story while you are reading. This will make reading more of a chore than a pleasure.

Be expressive.

No one likes to listen to a monotone. To a toddler who is just picking up nuances of language, an expressive reading style makes listening not only more enjoyable but also more comprehensible.

Be repetitious.

Toddlers love to hear the same story over and over again; it is incredibly satisfying to young ears to hear the familiar. Especially if the text is in rhyme, you may be surprised to find after a while that your toddler has memorized some of it.

Be brief.

Short books and short reading sessions are best with toddlers who cannot sit still. Go from page to page and idea to idea quickly to keep restlessness from setting in. Be ready to end story time after just a few minutes, if necessary.

Be cuddly.

Children who come to associate reading with the cozy comfort of being curled up on your lap almost always enjoy reading books later on.

Be a good example.

Children of readers are much more likely to end up readers themselves. Try to set time aside each day for your reading. Make sure your toddler sees you reading at least occasionally if you don't like reading or have no time for it. Make reading material a fixture in your home. Minimize the amount of television that is watched by your toddler and by you. Studies have shown that families who watch less, read more.

Children learn more in the first few years of life than in all the years that follow. One of the most important things they learn or should learn is to love learning. Every child is born curious and this natural curiosity is what propels learning; it must be cultivated. Some tips to fertilize your toddler's curiosity include:

• Accept, encourage and answer questions. Once they can speak they ask many questions. It may be tempting to ignore these incessant questions but all of a young child's questions deserve answers. When they don't receive answers or unsatisfying answers they may stop asking them. Your answers should be age-appropriate, short and simple.

• Expose your toddler to a variety of environments. Museums, playgrounds, malls, zoos, a busy road - almost any safe and appropriate location can provide your child with learning experiences. Many toddlers pick up through the power of observation; you can enhance his learning by adding your own observations or asking questions.

• Expose your toddler to a variety of experiences. Swinging on a swing, down the slide, splashing in a pool, playing ball, scribbling with a crayon, setting the table, ringing the doorbell, pushing the lift button and other countless possibilities. The experience along with your comments, make it valuable.

• Discourage excessive TV viewing. The fastest way to click off a mind is to click on the television set. A child can pick up valuable information by watching meaningful children programs but the learning is passive. Children who watch TV become complacent learners, their natural impulse to make their own discoveries is suppressed. TV viewing should be limited; when your toddler watches stay involved yourself.

• Build learning into everyday activities. You can introduce colors, numbers and letters through everyday activities. The point of these exercises is to spark your baby's interest in these subjects and to create an environment that fosters learning.

• Forster learning by nurturing self-esteem. A child needs to feel good about him or herself to be able to learn.

• Make learning fun. If children feel pressured into learning, are punished or belittled for failures or are confronted with formal learning prematurely will learn to dread learning instead of loving it.

Language in girls.

Right from birth, girls respond more to the human voice compared to boys and they have better verbal skills throughout childhood. Girls talk earlier than boys and begin to string words into sentences earlier. They are more articulate, have better pronunciation and grammar, and are better at verbal reasoning. They also learn to read earlier than boys. The structure of the female brain is responsible for girl's superior verbal skills: the speech centers are more tightly organized in the female brain than in the male brain and have more and better connections with other functions of the brain.

Language in boys.

Boys are almost always slower than girls at developing language skills and this discrepancy lasts throughout childhood. Boys are later in talking than girls, are slower to put words together in sentences and take longer to learn reading skills. Speech disorders such as stuttering are far more common in boys and boys outnumber girls in remedial reading classes. Although this difference in linguistic ability levels out somewhat during the teenage years, you can help your son's language skills by reading aloud to him and playing lots of word games.