Child development at 2 years

A two-year-old child already knows how to cope with many tasks independently. He is keenly interested in toys, is easily involved in educational games and quickly absorbs information. How can you develop a child of this age and what activities to use for this?

Age features

The child's coordination of movements noticeably improves, so the child becomes able to play with a constructor, sorter, mosaics, puzzles and similar toys.
The logical thinking of a crumb develops very quickly. The child is able to find solutions to various problems, to find out how an object works or how it works.
The sense of space develops at the same time. The child tries to direct the ball with a kick, throw it into the ring. Overall coordination during movement becomes better - the child is able to control the direction in which he is moving, stops, and also the speed of movement.
The independence and independence of a 2-year-old child is also increasing. Now the kid will try to learn new things without your help.

What should a child be able to do?

Most children at the age of two already know how to:

Run and climb stairs.
Close and open the door.
Step over obstacles.
Build towers and houses from bricks and a constructor.
Collect a pyramid from rings of different sizes.
Catch the ball with both hands.
Play multiple actions in a story game.
Eat with a spoon and drink from a cup.
Help mom around the house.
Understand short stories about familiar events.
Answer simple questions.
Show body and face parts.
Pronounce about 100-300 words.
Link 3-4 words into a sentence.
Name items in the picture.
Say goodbye and say hello.
Finish words in familiar rhymes and songs.
Simulate animal sounds.
Draw doodles on paper.
Distinguish 3-4 colors.

Height and weight

Compared to the indicators of 1.5 years, by the age of two, children gain about 1300 grams and grow by about 5-6 cm. For girls, all indicators will usually be slightly less than for boys. To find out whether the baby is developing normally physically, we offer you a table with the average values of the main indicators, as well as the normal boundaries for children of different sex:

You can use the calculator to calculate the norms for your child. The calculator is based on the standards for height and weight from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Is it worth worrying about deviations from the above physical norms, see the program of Dr. Komarovsky.

By the age of two, many children have completed their teething. On average, babies of this age have 16-20 milk teeth.

Types of child development

Physical

This type of development helps the child to become more resilient and agile. A two-year-old needs daily physical activity.

Classes for the physical development of 2-year-old children are as follows:

We alternate between fast and slow running.
We run on tiptoes.
We teach the child to jump on two legs in place.
Ball games - throw it against the wall, catch it, throw it to mom.
To maintain balance, we walk on a bench, a board on the floor.
We copy the movements of the animals after being shown by our mother - we jump like a hare, walk like a bear, crawl like a caterpillar, stomp loudly like an elephant, wave our arms like a bird.
We roll on the floor.
We jump like a frog from a half-crouched position.
We reach up to the suspended objects.
We run around the room, bending around obstacles (for example, pillows spread out on the floor).
We carry large, lightweight items.
We walk on uneven surfaces.
Walking on a drawn line is straight and winding.
We crawl under the stretched rope.
Together with other children we run a little train, play catch-up, arrange a round dance.
We hang on rings or a horizontal bar.
We master climbing on a sports wall.
We jump on the "bumps" - pillows spread out on the floor.
We climb through the tunnel.
We jump on the fitball.
We play snail - we crawl with a pillow on our back.
We walk on our hands.

Cognitive

This type of baby development includes the study of the surrounding world, the properties of objects, the development of logical thinking, attention, memory, the study of elements of mathematics. Activities for the cognitive development of a two-year-old child can be as follows:

Study of geometric shapes.
Studying the colors of objects.
Find the named object indoors, outdoors, or in a picture.
Find a pair by choosing from similar items.
Find the same patterns on hats, mittens, saucers and similar images.
Study of the concepts of "little" and "a lot".
Determination of the difference in the number of objects - the child learns to distinguish between 1 and 2.
Sort items by color and size.
Orientation in space with the study of the concepts "right", "below", "left", "above".
Folding puzzles and cut pictures that have 2-4 pieces.
Comparison of pictures, as well as objects in games "where is whose mother", "where is whose home", "who eats what" and the like.
Guessing simple riddles - who eats grass and says "moo", who is white and loves carrots.
Folding nesting dolls and glasses into each other.
Build a tower from different-sized glasses or cubes (sort by size).
Comparison of geometric figures with projections in the figure.
Classification of cards with objects according to a common feature, for example, food, animals, toys.
Find the whole piece by piece, for example, pick up the roof of the house or the tail of an animal.
Find a figure, taking into account 2 signs - find a small red among all the circles, find a large green among all the squares.
Study of the concepts of "low" and "high", "narrow" and "wide", "short" and "long".
Pick up a shadow for the subject.
Find the missing part of the picture.
The game “what's missing” (hide one of the toys or pictures) or “what's appeared” (add a picture or toy).
Hide and seek games.
We recall together what we did in the morning, yesterday, on a walk.
Remember the plot of the picture.
Thimble game with small toys.
We study wild and domestic animals. We show the child their cubs, tell simple facts about their life, name the body parts (hooves, horns, trunk).
We study birds and insects.
Acquaintance with the concept of day and night, as well as dividing the day into morning, lunch and evening.
Exploring natural phenomena, such as looking at a rainbow, snow or rain.
Meet 3-4 flowers that grow in your area.
Study of common vegetables and berries, as well as fruits and mushrooms.
Acquaintance with the seasons.
Conversations on the topic of transport, professions, clinic, human body parts, shop, family, aquarium, sea, trains, materials, city, electrical appliances and others.
If the child will soon start going to kindergarten, it is important to pay attention to the discussion of the topic of kindergarten.
On a walk, you can study traffic rules, vegetation, transport, sky and sun, natural materials (stones, leaves, branches), houses.
Also, while walking, you can play with snow, with puddles, with sunbeams, with shadows and with sand.

Sensory

This type of child development is directed towards his senses. During such activities, they affect the baby's tactile sensitivity, hearing, sight, smell, and taste.

Activities for the sensory development of a 2-year-old toddler are as follows:

We feel objects with different textures.
Learning the concepts of "cold" and "warm".
Study of tastes and smells. We find the same smell or taste.
Feeling objects to determine hardness or softness, smoothness or roughness.
We are looking for a couple of a piece of a certain material (cotton wool, fabric, cardboard, paper).

Musical

This type of development is aimed at the child's hearing, musical perception, recognition of musical instruments. It also includes dancing and singing.

To develop a child musically, the following games and activities are suitable:

Listening to children's songs.
Listening to classical music.
We distinguish different music - slow from fast, sad from cheerful, quiet from loud.
We listen to a variety of sounds while walking - the noise of cars, birdsong, rustling leaves and others.
We determine the source of sounds, for example, we find a bird on a tree.
We play various children's musical instruments.
We listen to the sounds of different instruments.
We listen to mom singing.
We dance with mom slowly and quickly, slap and stamp, make "flashlights" with handles, put a foot on the heel, and then on a toe, we dance.

Lead the activity shown by M. L. Lazarev (music development expert) with a 2-year-old child.

Speech

The development of a child's speech is aimed at increasing the vocabulary of the baby and stimulating the repetition of words for an adult. It is also important to do exercises for articulation.

Classes for speech development with a baby 2 years old can be as follows:

Replenishment of the passive vocabulary of the crumbs, constantly communicating with the baby and talking about everything that happens in his life.
Reading books (fairy tales, poems), as well as discussion of the read.
Asking your baby questions about the image in the picture or what is happening around the baby.
Play simple fairy tales with little ones.
Listen and sing songs.
Describe the objects that the baby sees using adjectives.
The use of prepositions (for, before, about, at), pronouns (here, there), adverbs (close, low, far, right, high, left and others) in speech.
We learn to blow on a candle, leaves, cotton wool, and also play with soap bubbles. You can blow either smoothly or sharply.
We make faces to the mirror, showing our tongue, chattering teeth, opening our mouth wide.
We learn to speak in a whisper and loudly.

Conduct articulation classes with a crumb, which will help the crumb speak sounds more clearly. One example is the Cup and Saucer exercise, which Tatyana Lazareva shows in the next video.

Fine motor skills

Its development is important for the development of speech, since in the human brain the zone responsible for the movement of the hands is in close proximity to the speech zone. Due to such a close arrangement, classes, during which the child's fingers are involved, have a positive effect on the speech development of the baby. Here are fine motor activities suitable for a 2 year old:

Finger gymnastics.
We are engaged in drawing, creating appliques and sculpting.
Games with insert frames, constructors, mosaics, lacing, sorters, pyramids.
Pour cereals from one container to another using a spoon, funnel, hands, children's dishes.
Pour water from one container to another using children's dishes, a watering can, a jug, a funnel.
Games with stickers.
Fastening and unfastening velcro on toys, clothes and shoes.
Unbuttoning zippers, buttons, buttons.
We catch small floating objects in water (in a basin, bowl, glass) with a sieve or spoon.
We collect water with a pipette or an enema, pour it into another container.
We collect water with a sponge.
We crumple and tear the paper.
We create patterns using small stones, large beans, pasta, sticks.
Clothespin games.
We select a lid for jars and bottles. We twist and unscrew them.

Playing with croup helps to develop motor skills. Be sure to organize these activities. Garbage after games can be easily removed with a vacuum cleaner.

Creative

This type of development stimulates the toddler's creativity and can include drawing, designing, sculpting, applique making, and the like.

Creative activities with a 2-year-old toddler can be as follows:

We draw circles, lines (they can be long, short, horizontal, vertical), paths.
We finish drawing strings to the balls, flower stems, hedgehog needles, grass, rain and other simple elements.
We draw patterns on a towel or rug.
Choosing a color for the picture.
Draw with a stick in the snow, semolina or sand.
We leave ink prints on paper using a sponge and stamps.
Learn to draw with paints using a brush.
We draw with our fingers.
We try to roll out plasticine or dough, making sausages and balls.
Break off a piece of plasticine or dough to flatten these lumps in your fingers or palms.
We connect the rolled sausage with the ends.
We sculpt lumps of plasticine onto cardboard, for example, to make decorations on the Christmas tree, seeds for a chicken.
Learning to smear plasticine on paper.
We leave prints on plasticine or dough using different objects.
Cut the dough with a plastic knife and cut it out with cookie cutters.
We make applications from torn or crumpled paper, as well as from cotton wool.
We apply an object consisting of two or three parts, for example, a mushroom, at home.
We make plot applications from two or three objects, for example, a house, a cloud and the sun.
We use Dienesh blocks, Lego constructors, and Kuisener sticks in games. We build a house, a bridge, a fence, a mountain from them.

Diversify your day with a Little Leonardo lesson, shown in a video with O. N. Teplyakova, an expert in intellectual development.

Social

Communication with peers is important for a two-year-old baby. The baby reaches out to other children and copies their actions. In the social development of the baby, great importance is also attached to the acquisition of everyday skills. Activities for the social development of a 2 year old child will be as follows:

We draw the attention of the little one to other children, trying to arouse sympathy for them.
Acquaintance with other children during walks, an offer to play together. Since at this age children do not yet know how to interact in play, it is very important for an adult to participate in joint play. It is especially important to teach the baby to play with other babies if the child soon starts attending kindergarten.
We teach the child to change toys.
We explain when you need to feel sorry for other people, for example, if a boy fell.
We teach the child to wash their hands using soap and towels.
We remove with the baby from the table after eating.
We collect the spilled liquid with a sponge.
We teach the baby to take off his clothes on his own, and also put on it.
Watering flowers with the child.
Together we remove the toys, putting them in place.

At the age of two, a frequent problem is child's reluctance to share toys. How to understand the baby and what to do in this case, see the video of Larisa Sviridova.

If you see the child's aggression towards other children, watch the video of Lara's mother (Larisa Sviridova), where she talks about how to act in this case.

Many parents worry that toys are often taken away from their child, but he does not defend them. Is it worth worrying about this, see the next video by Larisa Sviridova.

On the other hand, there are children who do not want to share their toys in any way. In the next video by Larisa Sviridova, you will see how to properly talk to a child and teach him to share.

An extremely relevant topic for many families is the child's hysterics when they do not get what they want. How to guide parents in this situation, see the fragment of Komarovsky's program.

Sample exercise program for a week

Drawing up a weekly plan for developmental activities for a baby helps to solve several problems at once:

Do not overload the child with activities in general.
Do not repeat the same activities.
Don't miss out on any kind of development.
Do not worry that the child is developing little and you are missing something.

We offer an example of a weekly workout routine for the development of a 2 year old child:

This is just an approximate plan for the development of a baby at the age of 2-2.5 years. To draw up your own plan, it is important to take into account the skills of the little one, and his temperament, and the interests of the child, and your goals.

In the plan, compulsory classes should be noted, for example, a visit to a massage therapist, attending circles, swimming in the pool. Identify the most important areas of your child's development and schedule activities on them 5-7 times a week. Be sure to leave room in the plan for improvisation or independent play of the baby. After 1-2 weeks, you will be able to analyze the implementation of the plan, after which some activities can be removed or replaced.

During classes, you may notice the child's aggression. It often manifests itself in cases where the parents refuse to fulfill the child's wishes. How to behave if the child also bites? See about this in the video of Larisa Sviridova.

Tips

You can not force the child to study if he is against the game. Your persistence can aggravate the situation and cause a sharp rejection of educational games.
Remember that a child's concentration on play at 2 years of age lasts only a few minutes, so the activity should not be long.
Be sure to praise your child if he succeeds. This will be an incentive for the further success of the baby.
You can not scold the child if he refuses to study, as well as in cases where something did not work out.
Try to make educational games interesting for your little one. They should bring joy to the baby, not cause boredom.

Give your child the opportunity to complete the task on their own, even if it takes a very long time. The baby will not be able to learn anything while you are more active in the game than the child himself.

Care and regimen

For the development of a two-year-old child, the health of the baby is of considerable importance, which is supported by the correct daily regimen and care:

It is important to ensure that the child has enough rest. Babies of this age sleep about 12-13 hours a day. Two-year-olds have one daytime nap, which lasts 2-2.5 hours.
The morning of the baby should begin with washing and brushing your teeth, as well as combing your hair. It is also important to teach your baby to hygiene, reminding them to wash their hands after a walk and before eating.
After naps, tempering procedures are often performed, such as rubbing or dousing the feet.
Many children have already mastered the pot by the age of 2 and are using it for its intended purpose. To ask for a potty, the child says words or makes a sign. Some kids go to the pot and take off their pants.
Walking with a two-year-old child is advised 1-2 times daily, since the baby really needs fresh air. Dress your baby according to the weather in order to prevent overheating, but also not to allow the child to freeze.
The nutrition of a 2-year-old toddler provides 4 meals with intervals of 3-4 hours between them. The nutritional value of the diet of a child of this age should correspond to 1400-1500 kcal.

For information on how to properly behave with a naughty child, see Dr. Komarovsky's TV show.