Don’t focus on the infamous “terrible twos” stage. This year, your toddler will achieve lots of amazing milestones that you’ll want to celebrate, DR RICHARD C. WOOLFSON reminds.
Don’t focus on the infamous “terrible twos” stage. This year, your toddler will achieve lots of amazing milestones that you’ll want to celebrate, DR RICHARD C. WOOLFSON reminds.
ILLUSTRATION CHENG PUAY KOON
Your two-year-old is even more inquisitive than before – she is ingenious enough to use a chair as a stepping-stone to climb up, and she’s dexterous enough to be able to pull a safety plug out of the electric wall socket.
There are also physical changes that occur this year, too. For instance, she puts on approximately 2.25 kg and grows about 10cm taller. Most of her 20 baby teeth have broken through her gums and she munches away quite happily with them.
Here are some other milestones of development, which occur during this exciting period in your growing child’s life:
24 months
• Now that her leg muscles are stronger, she likes to drag a pull-along toy across the grass, or to sit astride a large toy that has foot pedals.
• She starts to talk about herself using her name. Instead of saying, for instance, “Want doll,” she might say, “Debbie want doll.”
• Give her some hats to play with, such as a toy police’s helmet and a chef’s hat. She will have great fun using these in her pretend-play.
• Your attempts at toilet training are probably proving to be successful, although she still needs to wear a diaper at night. She responds well to praise for success.
• If you take note of the number of words she speaks over a two-day period, you’ll discover she uses at least two dozen, usually in short sentences.
• When she sits at a table, put a small piece of soft food (the size of her fingernail) in front of her. She won’t have a problem lifting it to her mouth.
30 months
• Your child can stand on her tiptoes for a moment or two, which really is quite a difficult task, requiring good muscle strength and fine balance.
• Give her with a lacing card – the type with a picture on it and holes round the perimeter – and a strong, coloured lace to thread in and out the holes. She enjoys this type of play.
• Listen for personal pronouns (for instance, “her”, “him”, “it”, “me”) beginning to appear in her speech. This is linked to her increased ability to understand symbolism.
• Your child can pick herself out from a group photo that she is in. She may also be able to point out other people whom she knows well and tell you their names.
• She shows an interest in dressing herself in the morning. She still needs help, of course, but at least she’s making an effort to manage on her own.
• When she sees you bring out a handful of small change, she may tell you that this is money. However, she won’t be able to tell you names of the coins yet.
36 months
• Show your child how you can jump off the ground with your legs and feet tight together on take-off and landing. You may find that she can jump this way.
• Whereas before she generally used only nouns (such as “table”, “bed”) and verbs (such as “went”, “eat”), she now starts to use adjectives as well (such as “big”, “good”).
• Pile small blocks in front of her (for example, five red blocks and five blue blocks). Then hand her a blue block and ask her to find one the same in the pile. She’ll match it.
• Her copying skills have improved. If there is a circle printed on the page, she can probably trace it reasonably well.
• By now, she is probably able to undress without your help, with the exceptions of buttons, zips, laces and other difficult fastenings.
• Give her a pair of child- friendly scissors, which have rounded ends and bigger handles. Let her try to cut a sheet of paper. She might manage this successfully.
If you take a note of the number of words she speaks over a two-day period, you’ll discover she uses at least two dozen.
