Two Year Old Development

Have you ever heard of the phrase terrible twos? This isn’t a very fun stage for parents to go through. Terrible twos is the stage when your child acts differently and their behavior isn’t very good. They don’t think they have to listen and just do what they want to do. Being parents, you just have to be   strict and have ground rules to help prevent this from becoming the acceptable way to act. Some of the things you can do are introduce time outs and talk to them what they do wrong. Take away a privilege they have, such as a toys, treat, etc. It’s really important to start early so they don’t grow up and think they can do whatever they want to and have the privilege to run over the top of you. Remember you are the parent and need to be in control.

Two years old is a big step in being a parent and a child. It can be a stressful yet very rewarding time.  A lot of important things happen during this year. It’s the time to begin potty training. Potty training isn’t always fun or easy, but you just have to develop some ways to help make this run smoothly. Make sure your child is ready and stick with it. At times, it can be overwhelming and stressful, but it’s well worth the hassle after they are potty trained. It cost less money because you aren’t having to buy diapers and wipes.

  Their developmental skills have made a dramatic change such as beginning to use their senses, talking, pretending etc. At this point in your child’s life, they should be able to put sentences together and begin to talk more. You should be able to have little conversations with your child. This becomes the more exciting part of being a parent; to be able to really talk with your child. Also, while they are playing; during this stage you will notice that they are beginning to pretend. They are becoming more social with children their own age. The child loves to play make believe, especially with someone else.

      Some of other curriculum your two year old should be doing is singing their ABC’s. It’s a good idea to have them say them at least once a day and say it with them.  But at this age they aren’t connecting the reading with the letters yet. They also have the concept of drawing on paper and pretending they are actually drawing a real picture. So just go along with what they are drawing and that will make them feel very special and all excited because they did something really cool. Even at this age, if they have help, they are able to start writing the first letter of their name.

      You’ll see that two year olds will begin to develop frustration, if something they are doing doesn’t work out how they want it to. All you can do as a parent is try to control it and say “It’s ok, try it again” etc. Sometimes the situation will cause them to go into a melt down and throw a fit. 

                Another thing to watch out for is biting. Biting occurs a lot around this age and is a very bad and hard habit to stop. They will go up to a child that’s in a corner and bit them or they even just go up to a child and bite in a blink of an eye. Not every child has this problem, but if they do; just don’t let them around other kids without close without supervision. This isn’t a very fun thing, but just let them know it’s not right and try different things and soon they will grow out of it.

                Their skills have increased a lot and they have figured out new techniques. It’s just a very proud and exciting time to see your child do all of these new and different things. Just enjoy all the fun times you can because they are only at this age once.  Also, just work with them so they can learn and do fun things and begin to feel the sense of achievement.