Safety Gates Help Keep Your Baby Safe

Psychologists have forwarded different theories trying to explain the development of a child. The most popular of these theories would include that of Piaget's (focused on knowledge acquisition based from hands-on experience and which proceeds through stages), Vygotsky's (focused on culture as the main influential factor of development), Erikson's (linked social interaction with personality development), Freud's (child development involves stages wherein each stage is aimed at satisfying sexual pleasures argued to be innate to humans), and Skinner's (child development is largely induced by operant conditioning and verbal development).

Different these theories are in certain important respects, there seems to be a common factor among them and that is how the concept of "play" stands as a contributing factor in the positive development in children.

Child development is categorized according to age bracket. Infants are considered to be at ages 0-1, toddlers are in ages 1-3, preschool are in ages 3-6 and school-aged children are 6-13 years of age. Children exhibit different types of behavior among the different age brackets. Toddler age shows a great change on the child physical development- on the average, it is at this stage that children start walking, talking and even running.

That amazing physical change also allows them to express their curiosity in a different manner - mostly involving a lot of physical works. The new capabilities that they have acquired at this point now give them the chance to explore their world and apparently in the child's opinion, relatively 'on his own'. This new manner of expressing their curiosity calls for safety measures more than ever to keep the child safe, healthy and happy.

One way to ensure that the play environment is safe is to install safety gates. These gates will provide the essential security for the child to avoid unwanted circumstances from taking place. Safety gates come in two types: pressure-mounted gates and attached gates. Pressure-mounted gates are removable gates which you can detach when it becomes unnecessary.

Further, this type does not need much hardware (hammer, nails, etc.) and are easier to install compared with attached gates. As they do not leave holes on the walls, these gates may be appropriate when staying in a rented apartment. On the other hand, attached gates are in total opposite of the pressure-mounted type. Attached-type safety gates leave holes but the considerable advantage it has over the other type is that it has a lower probability of falling- meaning, it is relatively safer.

Safety gates have different material construction as well. Generally, safety gates come as either wood or plastic. They also come in different hardness- others may be harder while others are relatively smoother. This difference in material construction results in varied levels of safety gates durability. Depending on how you plan to use it, you can go for the really durable ones which also come at a higher cost. But of course when it comes to child safety, everything always makes a good investment.