Speaking of Play: 2 Years
Introduction
At 2 years of age, your little one is officially a toddler! Toddlers start thinking, communicating, and playing in new ways that are so exciting to watch. Play continues to be the primary way in which children at this age learn new skills. Keep reading to learn more about what to expect during this phase of development and how you can best support your child’s language and play skills.
Play development
Your child’s imagination is continuing to bloom. During this stage, children start using pretend play to act out short scenes from daily routines. For example, they may cut pretend food, act out cooking it, and then serve it on a plate. They are able to use their growing thinking skills to add more complexity to their play. For example, a block might become a yummy sandwich! Your child will also be able to solve more problems during play, such as sorting toys into different baskets or moving puzzle pieces to try to make them fit. Along with their growing thinking skills, children’s fine motor skills continue to improve during this time. You may see more controlled strokes start to develop while coloring. Socially, children still primarily play near each other at this age, otherwise known as parallel play, but you may see children playing together for short periods of time.
Communication Skills
Toddlers are learning new words every day - up to 10 words a day by some estimates! At two years of age, your child should be able to connect two words together to form more cohesive ideas, such as “Up Mommy!” or “Doggy eat”. You will also start to hear more grammatical complexity within their sentences, including using -ing verbs, such as eating or drawing, plurals, and possessives. Your child will start to tell you about daily experiences using short sentences and will begin to use language for social interactions, such as pretending, sharing information, and questioning. Two year old’s can also understand stories and are able to connect meaning with stories read aloud to the pictures in a book.
Toys to Explore
Stuffed animals can help provide comfort and offer opportunities for your child to expand their imagination as they mimic activities they see every day, such as feeding their stuffed animal.
Baby dolls and stuffed animals
Children at this age love to incorporate dolls and animals into their play as their imagination continues to expand. You might catch them acting out short scenes with their “friends”, such as feeding or bathing them.
Follow your child’s lead and add on to what they are saying. For example, if your child is feeding a baby, ask what the baby wants to eat next or if any other “friends” are hungry.
Try using accessories such as blankets and bottles with the baby or stuffed animal to expand your child’s play.
Sorting games help children build early literacy and math skills, such as by observing how things are alike and different, as well as early problem-solving skills.
Sorting games
There are commercial sorting games available for purchase, or you could easily make your own sorting activities at home. Try placing pictures onto toy bins to turn cleaning up into a game. Where do all the toy cars go? Where does all the play food go?
As your child’s thinking skills continue to develop, they will be able to sort items by type, color, and size!
Chunky puzzles can help your little one improve their problem solving skills. You can model how to solve problems by verbalizing your thought process - “I wonder which way this puzzle piece goes?”. You also have opportunities to model turn-taking and vocabulary such as “big, little, in, on, above, below”.
Chunky puzzles
Puzzles are a great way to work on problem solving, fine motor, and language skills.
Model problem solving for your child and talk about the thinking process using “I wonder” statements. “I wonder which way this puzzle piece goes? Does it go this way? No… try again. Oh, it goes this way! We got it!”
Talk about what is on the puzzle! What is on each puzzle piece? What does it look like when the pieces are put together?
Blocks allow children to think creatively; they can form the blocks together to make anything they want. Blocks also allow children to become problem solvers; the child must figure out how to place the blocks together to make the form they want. You can model your problem-solving skills by verbalizing your thought process, “I’m going to try to connect these blocks to make a tall giraffe”.
Magnetic or bristle blocks
As your child’s imagination grows, the possibilities are endless with what they are able to build out of blocks. Blocks promote thinking, problem solving, fine motor, and language skills.
Follow your child’s lead and ask about what they are building. Add on to their ideas by inserting new related ideas. For example, if your child has built a house out of blocks, you could use a toy person to pretend to live inside it or suggest building a playground next to the house.
Play dough supports your child’s creativity and imagination. You can talk about the similarities and differences between your creations, and model pretend play, such as saying “ROAR! My tiger is going to chase you!” Play dough has many benefits, even outside of play, speech, and language. It helps develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. You can make your own play dough for more fun colors or to add scents for an enhanced sensory experience.
Play dough
Play dough lends itself so well to using your child’s imagination! At the same time, they can practice their fine motor and language skills!
Play dough can be bought at the store for convenience, but it is also simple to make at home with ingredients you probably already have around the house.
Let your child use their hands to explore and create. Try rolling the dough, pressing it into shapes, or poking little holes in the dough.
Talk about the differences between your creations. “This ball is big but this ball is small!” “This snake is long but this snake is short!”
This is an exciting time in your child’s development. They are able to use their growing thinking, motor, and language skills to expand their play in new ways! While they may be using more new toys and games, remember - YOU are still your child’s most important playmate and toy!
This blog is part of a series. Click here to read an introduction about all the stages of play! Stay tuned for the next post in this series as we dive into the next stage of play! Concerned about your child’s play or language development? Feel free to contact us!