Understanding 2-Year-Old Development

Toddlers playing at childcare center

The period of time when your little baby turns into a walking, talking toddler can come with a lot of emotions. Excitement, nervousness, and even sadness are all normal feelings as your child ages. One thing that unfortunately unites all parents is stress because it’s stressful raising a human – but oh, so worth it!

Two-year-old development is something that you might find yourself fretting about as your toddler approaches that age. It can be such a fun time, with their little personalities shining through and their ability to communicate improving greatly. Among that joy, you may find yourself worried about development milestones, which is totally normal!

 

How Does Daycare Support Development Milestones?

During those formative years, you should find a daycare that is able and committed to helping your child reach developmental milestones. Daycares can really make or break how your little one reaches their development milestones simply because children spend so much time there.

When searching for a daycare, look for information on how they plan to address development milestones and how they support the work parents are already doing. Make sure they have classes for different ages so that your little one is surrounded by their peers.

It’s important that a potential daycare exhibits an understanding of all kinds of different physical, emotional, and cognitive learning objectives. For example, a commitment to STEM is always a good sign because it plays such a vital role in your child’s future education and life.

 

What Should 2-Year-Old Development Look Like?

Two-year-old development is tricky because so many changes happen so quickly; it might seem like your tiny baby becomes a toddler overnight! There are tons of physical milestones to reach, like running, climbing, and showing interest in different sports.

Sometimes the more difficult aspects of 2-year-old development are the social-emotional milestones. These benchmarks are exciting but can also be frustrating!

Three signs of healthy 2-year-old development include:

  • Pushing boundaries
  • Making friends
  • Speaking in sentences

 

Defiance and Pushing Boundaries

As frustrating as it might be, showing signs of defiance and learning to push boundaries is a completely appropriate benchmark in 2-year-old development. During the more difficult times, it’s important to remember that your toddler is not being “bad.” Rather, they are learning how to interact with the world, and you are a safe person with whom to do this.

 

New Toddler Friends

Something that will give you the warm fuzzies is that your toddler will start making little friends! They will likely start talking about particular kids in their daycare class and telling you all about their adventures. This is one of the most exciting parts of having a toddler!

 

Starting to Use Short Sentences

This is both a social-emotional development milestone and a cognitive one. Your little one should start speaking in sentences rather than just spouting random words. Their communication will change and improve so quickly, and you’ll have a blast hearing the things they come up with!

Having a toddler can be difficult and really fun. Having a daycare that supports your parenting efforts is a wonderful thing, and here at The Breakie Bunch Learning Center, we are committed to doing just that!