What to Expect
Provided by U.S. Department of Education
Between their first and second birthdays, children:
- Are energetic, busy and curious
- Are self-centered
- Like to imitate the sounds and actions of others (for example, by repeating words that parents and others say and by pretending to do housework or yard work with adults)
- Want to be independent and to do things for themselves
- Have short attention spans if they aren't involved in an activity that interests them
- Add variations to their physical skills (for example, by walking backwards)
- Begin to see how they are like and unlike other children
- Play alone or alongside other toddlers
- Increase their spoken vocabularies from about 2 or 3 words to about 250 words and understand more of what people say to them
- Ask parents and others to read aloud to them, often requesting favorite books or stories
- Pretend to read and write like parents and others
Between their second and third birthdays, children:
- Become more aware of others
- Become more aware of their own feelings and thoughts
- Are often stubborn and may have temper tantrums
- Able to walk, run, jump, hop, roll and climb
- Expand their spoken vocabularies from about 250 to 1,000 words during the year
- Put together 2-, 3- and 4-word spoken sentences
- Begin to choose favorite stories and books to hear read aloud
- Begin to count
- Begin to pay attention to print, such as the letters in their names
- Begin to distinguish between drawing and writing
- Begin to scribble, making some marks that are like letters
What Toddlers Need
1- to 2-year-old children require:
- Opportunities to make their own choices: "Do you want the red cup or the blue one?"
- Clear and reasonable limits
- Opportunities to use large muscles in the arms and legs
- Opportunities to use small muscles to manipulate small objects, such as puzzles and stackable toys
- Activities that allow them to touch, taste, smell, hear and see new things
- Chances to learn about "cause and effect"-that things they do cause other things to happen (for example, stacking blocks too high will cause the blocks to fall);
- Opportunities to develop and practice their language skills
- Opportunities to play with and learn about alphabet letters and numbers
- Opportunities to learn about books and print
2- to 3-year-old children require opportunities to:
- Develop hand coordination (for example, by holding crayons and pencils, putting together puzzles or stringing large beads)
- Do more things for themselves, such as dressing themselves
- Talk, sing and develop their language skills
- Play with other children and develop their social skills
- Try out different ways to move their bodies
- Learn more about printed language and books and how they work
- Do things to build vocabulary, knowledge and to awareness of the world, such as taking walks and visiting libraries, museums, restaurants, parks and zoos
