How can you stimulate a child's intellectual development?
There are several ways to support a child’s cognitive development:
- A stimulating environment: age-appropriate books, a variety of games, cultural outings, music
- Thinking games: puzzles, board games, building blocks, and age-appropriate brain teasers
- Open-ended discussions that encourage children to ask questions and express their ideas
- Creative activities: drawing, painting, sculpting, crafts, music
- Exploring nature and observing the environment
- A variety of experiences: markets, museums, libraries, trips
- Early bilingualism, if possible, which supports cognitive flexibility
- Quality sleep: essential for memory and concentration
- A balanced diet rich in omega-3, iron, and vitamins
- Regular physical activity that supports cognitive functions
Intellectual development is fostered through relationships, sensory experiences, and free play. For supplements tailored to your child’s growth needs, visit our children’s vitamins section.
What role does play play in development?
Play is much more than just a pastime—it is a child’s essential work:
- Fine and gross motor skills: balance, coordination, strength, dexterity
- Social skills: sharing, taking turns, conflict resolution, negotiation
- Emotional skills: self-expression, managing frustration, empathy
- Cognition: problem-solving, memory, creativity, language
- Free play: essential for imagination and independence
- Symbolic play (role-playing, tea party, dress-up): understanding the social world
- Outdoor play: motor skills, contact with nature, exposure to sunlight
- Group games: rules, cooperation, teamwork
Set aside some unstructured time each day: Children need moments without scheduled activities to develop their imagination and their ability to be constructively bored.
What educational tools are best for preschoolers?
For children ages 2 to 6, the most effective tools combine learning and fun:
- Picture books rich in color, textures, and stories
- Colorfulpicture books and alphabet books
- Manipulative toys: modeling clay, Kapla blocks, LEGO DUPLO, magnetic building blocks
- Age-appropriate puzzles
- Simple board games: Memory, Lotto, Mistigri
- Sensory activities: sensory bins, painting, music
- Simplescience discovery kits
- Everydaymusic and nursery rhymes
- Montessori-inspired practical lifeactivities
- Outings to the park, the library, and nature
Choose open-ended toys (that can be used in multiple ways) over highly structured electronic toys. Quality is far more important than quantity.
How to Handle Tantrums?
Temper tantrums are normal for children, especially between 18 months and 4 years of age. Here are a few guidelines:
- Recognize the warning signs: tiredness, hunger, overstimulation, frustration
- Stay calm and acknowledge the emotion without judging it
- Put the child’s experience into words: “You’re very angry because…”
- Provide physical comfort without forcing or punishing
- Offer limited choices to restore a sense of control
- Avoid negotiating in the heat of the moment
- Offera quiet space to calm down —never force it
- Consistency among caregivers (parents, grandparents)
- Plan ahead: stable routines, announced transitions, basic needs met
- Modeling: Demonstrate how to manage one’s own emotions
For a child who is restless or very easily irritable on a daily basis, a pediatric or psychological evaluation may be helpful in exploring the causes.
Why establish a daily routine?
A routine provides a secure framework that is essential for development:
- Emotional security: reassuring predictability for the child
- Reduced anxiety related to the unknown
- Learning about time: landmarks throughout the day
- Development of independence: a sequence of repeated tasks
- Bettersleep quality through regular schedules
- Regulation of meals and digestion
- Preparation for transitions (school, daycare)
- Evening Wind-Down Through a Consistent Ritual
The routine should remain flexible and tailored to each child. A few fixed points each day (waking up, meals, naps, bedtime) are enough to provide structure without being overly rigid. Transitions are easier to manage with rituals (a wake-up song, a bath rhyme, bedtime reading).
How can you instill a love of reading in children?
A love of reading is cultivated from a very young age:
- Read aloud daily starting at birth, without waiting for the child to “understand”
- An accessible and comfortablereading nook at home
- A varied selection that’s regularly updated (picture books, non-fiction, fiction)
- Let the childchoose books on their own at the library or bookstore
- Regular visits to the library starting at age 1
- Parents who read themselvesserve as role models
- A bedtimereading ritual
- Discussions about the stories: feelings, theories, vocabulary
- Acting out stories with voices, games, and puppets
- Adapted to the child’sage and specific interests
- Patience during phases of disinterest
Shared reading is also a precious moment of emotional connection, regardless of the cognitive aspect.
What impact do screens have on development?
Screens are part of modern daily life, but their use must be guided (recommendations from Santé publique France and the WHO):
- Before age 3: no screen time, even for educational purposes (impact on language, attention, and sleep)
- Ages 3 to 6: very limited screen time (less than 1 hour per day), supervised by an adult, with high-quality content
- Ages 6 to 12: strict supervision, no screens in the bedroom, parental controls, limited to 1–2 hours per day
- No screens during meals, in the bedroom, or before bedtime (at least 1 hour before bedtime)
- Age-appropriate programs: Avoid advertisements, violent, or frightening content
- Parents should puttheir phones away during time dedicated to the child
- Encouraged alternatives: free play, reading, going out, creativity, sports
- Educational discussions about content consumed starting in pre-adolescence
Excessive use can affect sleep, concentration, language development, and social skills. Psychiatrist Serge Tisseron’s “4-step” rule is a useful guideline: no screens before age 3, no personal gaming console before age 6, no Internet before age 9, and no social media before age 12.
How can we build children’s self-esteem?
Self-esteem is built through relationships and experiences:
- Recognizing effort over results: value the process
- Specific compliments: not a generic “good job,” but “I like how you thought through this problem”
- Encouragement when facing difficulties: “You’re not quite there yet”
- Age-appropriate responsibilities: tidying up, helping out, making choices
- Joint decision-making in relevant areas (clothes, activities, meals)
- Mistakes downplayed and presented as learning opportunities
- Attentive, nonjudgmentallistening
- Validating emotions: “It’s normal to feel that way”
- Kind and consistentboundaries
- Parental role model: demonstrating how to manage one’s own weaknesses
- Unwavering support in the face of external challenges (school, friendships)
Self-esteem is nurtured by the feeling of being unconditionally loved and competent in age-appropriate areas.
What signs of atypical development should you watch for?
Several signs may warrant a professional evaluation:
- Language delay: no babbling by 12 months, no words by 18 months, few sentences by age 2
- Persistentmotor coordination difficulties for the child’s age
- Atypical social behaviors: limited eye contact, little interest in other children, consistently playing alone
- Markedrepetitions and stereotyped behaviors
- Significantsensory hypersensitivity (sounds, textures, light)
- Regression in acquired skills
- Significant, long-termsleep disturbances
- Major feeding difficulties, extreme food selectivity
- Seizures that are atypical in terms of frequency, duration, or intensity
- Very pronouncedattention difficulties or restlessness in daily life
- Academic performance significantly behind that of peers
If you have any concerns, talk to your primary care physician or pediatrician, your local maternal and child health clinic (PMI), or a Medical-Psychological-Educational Center (CMPP). Early detection allows for appropriate treatment and a better prognosis. For persistent nervousness in children, targeted advice is available.
How can you help a child during a transition?
Major transitions (moving, changing schools, the birth of a younger sibling, parental separation) require special support:
- Clearadvance notice, explained in a way a child can understand
- Honest answers to questions, without overwhelming the child with information
- Validate the emotions they express (anxiety, sadness, anger)
- Visits to the new locations whenever possible
- Early introductions to new people (teachers, classmates)
- Maintaining familiar points of reference: objects, routines, comfort items
- Involving the child in preparations, age-appropriate
- Targetedthemed reading (children’s books on the subject)
- Liaise with the school or childcare center to share relevant information
- Patience during the adjustment period, which varies from child to child
- Seekprofessional support if the transition causes persistent distress
A stable family environment remains the best source of support: maintaining routines, spending time together, and listening attentively. A child’s resilience relies heavily on the quality of the attachment bond and the parents’ sense of calm. Don’t hesitate to ask your support network for help if you yourself are going through a difficult time as a parent.
