The kids here do seem to be behind western standards for walking, running, hopping, opening bottles, drinking without spilling, etc. In these Little Miss N is about a year ahead. Her Chinese was behind a little, but now she is in front as well as about up to par for English. She's 2 1/2.
Actually, the kids are pretty hopeless. Miss N leads them around by the nose a lot of the time. The teacher's don't like her playing independantly apparently, either. This is a HOT climate, and they hate the fact she likes playing with water.
I mean, they are still hand-feeding children, especially boys, here when they are in primary school. It's disgusting. Plus, if they run into a table or something, they hit the table, like it's the inanimate object's fault. I yelled at a nanny for doing this with our kid, but it seems pretty common. Like sobbing breaths to get what they want. I am considering taking her out of 'school' (Ok, its really a kind of directed day care) for learning these bad habits. Also, they don't tell the kids off when they just drop stuff on the floor, and my neighbours actually taught my kid to draw on the floor. She came home, and grabbed a permanent marker and drew throughout the whole house. She hasn't done that since she was about 18 months. They couldn't see why I was upset. Actually, Mrs N couldn't see much problem either, to tell the truth. That's what kids do, apparently. But I spent 3 hours getting the shit off the walls with alcohol and elbow grease.