Toddlers shouldn’t say sorry — whatever next?
I regularly come across intriguing claims when it comes to education and the rights and wrongs of raising children these days.
Recently, I was made aware of this article below in a magazine called Little London Guides announcing latest research shows that asking a toddler to say sorry is wrong and inappropriate for their age.
The argument is that children under the age of four are still developing a concept of the word “sorry” and haven’t yet developed cognitive and emotional brain functions to fully grasp it.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t disagree with this finding — many child development research projects confirm this ever since Piaget came to the realisation that two- to four-year-olds are egocentric when observing his own children. And working with two to four year-olds every day I would say that an average majority of this age group finds it challenging to step into their counterpart’s shoes.
However, I can certainly observe that a three- or four-year-old can understand that they don’t want to be hurt, for example. They know very well that hurting someone causes pain and I often find that even without adult…
