Understanding Children Two and Three Year Olds 2

Understanding Children Two and Three Year Olds

2 year olds

Physical Development • Gross motor development – Improved coordination and body control – Can walk up and down stairs if they place both feet on each stair – Can jump several inches off the floor – Can sit on a riding toy and move it by pushing with their feet

Physical Development • Fine motor development – Can insert keys into a lock and turn pages in a book one at a time – Can hold scissors properly – Hand preference is fairly developed – At 24 months, kids can scribble – Hold the crayon or pencil in their fist – Can build with blocks

Physical Development • Self – help skills – Undress self – Dress self by pulling on simple garments – Zipper usage – Drink from a cup or glass – Can use a spoon – Potty training

Cognitive Development • Language Comprehension Skills – Understanding of language – 2 year olds can understand answer routine questions (e. g. What is that? ) – Can tell difference between soft/heavy, big/tall

Cognitive Development • Expressive Language Skills – The ability to produce language forms – The child’s experiences affect the rate and content – Important to provide an environment that stimulates language development – Two language strategies • Feeding – in: you provide child’s language • Expansion: reframing child’s word into a sentence

Cognitive Development • Express language skills – 50 to 200 word vocabulary – Girls generally develop language skills faster than boys – Often use the word “no”

Cognitive Development • Math Readiness Skills – Developed as children interact with others and with objects – Begin to sort objects by shape and color

Social – Emotional Development • Social development – Children play next to each other, but not with each other – More interested in adults than other kids – Act out adult experiences as they play (driving, talking on the phone) – Possessive; do not want to share – Affectionate

Social – Emotional Development • Emotional development – 2 year olds like to be able to control their surroundings – Doing a task too difficult for them may cause anger – Commonly develop fears (most often of being harmed or hurt, or stem from their imagination) – Need regular routines to build trust and security – Need love and caring, despite their temper

When teaching 2 year olds be prepared for: – The word “no”… A LOT – Egocentricity … they think you feel the same way they do – Dawdling … they go at their own pace – Curiosity … especially with toys. Add new items a few at a time. – Temper tantrums … be calm and composed.

3 year olds

Physical Development • Gross motor development – Throwing, jumping and hopping improve due to better coordination – Can climb and descend stairs easily – Can ride and steer tricycle • Fine motor skills – Cutting skills more refined – Can reproduce simple shapes as they draw – Can trace – Enjoy drawing faces that include a mouth, eyes, nose and ears that are not proportional

Physical Development • Self – help skills – Daily care routines require little assistance from adults – Open buckles on clothes – Put on shoes (without strings) – Have trouble telling front from back of clothing – Most have almost full control of toilet routines

Cognitive Development • Able to solve simple problems • Still egocentric • Learn quickly – Language comprehension, expressive language, and math readiness skills continue to improve

Cognitive Development • Language comprehension skills – Can remember and follow 3 -part instructions – Understand pronouns such as you, they – Space concepts become clearer

Cognitive Development • Expressive language skills – Children may use more than 900 words – Start to use question words (why/when) – As children play, they frequently talk out loud to themselves

Cognitive Development • Math Readiness Skills – Understand more/less/smaller/empty – Like to compare objects – Counting skills begin at this age – Distinguish between one and many

Social – Emotional Development • Social development – Eager to help others, especially adults – Adjust to new people more easily – Begin to play with other children – Will share some – Begin to learn gender roles • Behaviors that are expected of girls and boys

Social – Emotional Development • Emotional development – Strong, visible emotions – Eager to act in ways that please others – Likely to become angry when things do not go their way, but direct anger toward object instead of person – Developing a self – concept: the way they see themselves – Not as frightened by objects that they know, but afraid of imagined dangers (dark) – Fearful of pain – Affectionate

Teaching 3 year olds: • Eager to please • Enjoy playing alone and in groups of 2 or 3 • Enjoy pretending to cook, shop • Become increasingly independent • Need encouragement to be independent