Speaking of Play: 2.5 Years
Introduction
By two and a half years of age, your child will be developing their sense of self and becoming their own person with their own opinions. This can be challenging at times for both children and parents! As their independence and thinking skills grow, you will also notice your child’s play and communication skills advancing along with them. Here are some skills to be on the lookout for and ways in which you as a parent can help support your child’s development!
Play Development
At this stage, you will see your child’s imaginary play continue to expand. You will notice that they are able to incorporate new events they have experienced into their play, particularly memorable or impressive events. For example, your child may incorporate going to the doctor, visiting a restaurant, or shopping at the store. You will notice that your child continues to integrate more skills into playtime. Language is used to communicate their imaginative ideas, such as saying where their dolls are going shopping or what they might be eating. Fine motor skills are used to help stack blocks and dress stuffed animals. Thinking and problem solving skills continue to develop as they explore during play and figure out what works and what doesn’t as they build, stack, pour, and dump.
Communication Development
At two and a half, your child should be able to combine at least two words together to form meaningful combinations. Some children may be able to combine four or more words together. They will start to be able to ask simple questions, such as “Where’s Daddy?” or “What’s that?”. By this stage, they should also be able to answer Who, What, and Where questions. Children’s speech will also be starting to develop more at this age. While their speech clarity won’t be perfect, they will be able to produce more speech sounds accurately. Between 2 and 3 years of age, most children are understood by others 50 to 75% of the time. Socially, children are able to start engaging in mini conversations and use language to be social. They are able to have a back and forth for about 2 to 3 turns.
Toys to Explore
Toy vehicles and little people help children develop their imagination by talking about what the people are doing and where they are going. They can reenact things that see and hear everyday in their play and build off models that you provide during play.
Toy vehicles with little people that fit inside
Toy vehicles, such as cars or a bus, that have little people inside are so fun at this age! Children are able to use their blossoming imagination skills to talk about what the people are doing and where they are going!
At this age, children often still need some ideas from adults to help build their own ideas off of. Try introducing one or two new ideas into a play session to help incorporate new experiences into play. For example, if your child is putting people in their car, you may suggest they are going to a restaurant for lunch or to a store. Ask your child what the people might be eating or buying today!
Toys that need to be activated, like cars that roll when you pull them backwards, or windup toys, are a great opportunity for your toddler to explore a new toy and problem solve to figure out how to do it.
Toys that can be activated, such as cars that roll forward when you pull them back
These toys are so fun for toddlers and help incorporate problem solving, motor, and language skills into play.
Give your child the opportunity to explore the toy and figure out how it works. Don’t jump in immediately! If they need help using it, this is a great chance to wait and see if they come to ask you for help using their growing communication skills.
You can incorporate verbal routines such as “Ready, set, go!” and descriptive language into play with these toys. “Wow, the car went so fast! It rolled really far!”
Books support all aspects of communication - vocabulary, answering questions, problem solving, story retell and grammar, and more! Reading books is also a wonderful time to bond with your child over an enjoyable, shared experience.
MORE books
Books are full of endless opportunities for communication practice! Books allow the opportunity to hear new vocabulary that you might not use in everyday conversation, ask and answer questions, discuss social/emotional ideas presented in the book, and problem solve!
Talk about what you see on each page together. Practice answering Who, What, and Where questions. “Where is the dog going?” “Who made pancakes?” “What is the boy wearing?”
For familiar books, your child may be able to start retelling the book to you! Try mixing things up at bedtime and offering your child the opportunity to “read” a book to you.
Stringing beads is an activity that can easily be modified to meet your child’s fine motor needs. There are large beads and laces for developing fingers, and pony beads and thread or pipe cleaners for those with more refined fine motor skills. This activity also provides opportunities to talk about various spatial concepts that are very important when it comes to follow directions.
Stringing beads
Stringing beads are an engaging way to incorporate fine motor skills into play. You can buy sets of wooden beads with laces or you can use pipe cleaner with pony beads.
Beads lend themselves well to using descriptive language and location words like “in”, “out”, “through”, “top”, and “bottom”. Play with the beads alongside your child and talk about what your beads look like and what you are doing with them!
Arts and crafts, such as coloring with crayons and markers, is a great way to let your toddler’s imagination run free while still supporting their fine motor and language development. Talk about what you’re drawing and give your child opportunities to talk about their drawing too.
Crayons and markers
Looking for a way to incorporate fine motor, language, and imagination into one activity? Coloring is a great way to do that!
If your child isn’t sure where to start, see if they can copy simple shapes that you make, such as lines and circles. Don’t be surprised though if they have their own ideas of what they want to scribble instead!
Color alongside your child and talk about what you are drawing. “I drew a cat! He is a BIG cat! My cat is orange. What did you draw?”
Your child might enjoy giving you directions about what to draw! This is a fun way to get them talking while you draw items they request. You can also insert new ideas of your own. For example, if you are drawing a person, you could ask additional questions like “What should he wear today?” or “Where is the person?”
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!