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Two-year-olds are fascinating, as they are just beginning to develop a whole slew of new skills. They can walk, run and draw basic scribbles. Between ages 2-3, children know about 1200-1500 words, so you can start having basic communication with your two-year-old. Here are the child development milestones for ages 2-3. Subscribe to Type-A Mom articles

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Movement and mobility

• will walk alongside you and likes to hold your hand
• can run with short steps but finds it hard to control speed or stopping.
• Can climb the stairs, but only by bringing both feet onto the same step each time
• can copy your actions
• can climb low objects and steps and use a slide

Co-ordination

• will start to show a clear preferences for left or right hand when playing and scribbling
• can thread beads, build small towers ( and loves to knock them down!)
• can make simple jigsaws
• can draw squiggles and lines and a few basic, but maybe unrecognizable, shapes
• can pour liquids, but very messily!
• can turn the pages of a board book
• likes to fiddle with everything

Vocabulary

• at this age knows approximately 1200 – 1500 words
• speaks in very short sentences, using only 2 or 3 words. “I like cat”
• will know their own name, and names of family and pets
• can understand short instructions
• can express basic feelings “John cross”

Social Skills

• likes to show affection and is very loving
• can be clingy for parents, especially Mom, but will happily stay with other family members that they know well
• may have a special friend, even an imaginary one!
• has unrealistic expectations of what she can achieve, and gets frustrated with her own lack of ability. Becomes grumpy is she fails at anything
• likes to make small choices, what to eat, clothes to wear...
• is just learning to share but finds this a difficult concept

Learns by:

• making things up
• playing remembering games and talking about the short term past. (ie what she did yesterday)
• likes to talk about people, places and objects that are familiar and loved
• repetition of words, puzzles and TV programmes
• trying to talk about experiences

In terms of their learning and development, most children pass through roughly the same milestones at approximately the same age.

This series of articles has been written as a rough guide to how you should expect your child to develop between the ages given. Remember, all kids are individuals, and they will vary in their strengths and weaknesses and preferences for each skill set ( and this list is by no means definitive!).

Also see:

• Child Development from Age 5-6
• Child Development from Age 4-5
• Child Development from Age 3-4

Click here for tips to manage your toddler!