A Child 2-3 Years

Growth and Development
During this year, weight and height will increase at about the same rate as in the previous 12 months (height increases by about 8-10 cm and weight by 2-3 kg).

Toddlers have spent the past few months practicing and coordinating their body movements. Walking is nearly perfect and most of them are running safely. Falls are common, partly because they are top heavy and partly because they do not have the ability to avoid obstacles in their path quickly. These difficulties sort themselves out with practice and by their third birthday toddlers go up and down steps, may tricycle with great ease, kick or throw a ball and jump from small heights.

By this time too they are able to pick up tiny objects with thumb and forefinger, and enjoy scribbling with a pencil and looking at picture books. They understand most of what is said but the number of words that each individual child can say varies greatly. Some can form short sentences and easily make their needs known, while others are barely past the ‘pointing and hoping to be understood’ stage. For the latter, life will still be full of frustrations and this indicates a delay needing assessment.

Listening and taking notice of what they say is probably one of the best contributions parents can make to help language develop. The more they are talked with, the more words they learn. The more words they know, the more clearly they can think, and the less frustrated they become. By listening to what they say we show them that we consider their opinions to be worthwhile. This confirms the feeling of being an independent and individual person. It is also important that they feel this emerging self is a good person to be.

By the time they are three their behavior has changed again and they seem very much more ‘grown up’. They may now enjoy making choices between two alternatives. They listen attentively and seem to want to please.

Language helps children to learn to reason, to think and to understand the world around them; speech facilitates the making of relationships, both with adults and with contemporaries; and verbal communication is and remains a vital means of coping and coming to terms with life. Mia Kellmer Pringle

As a Social Being
Socially, toddlers are not advanced. They are more interested in things than in other children. Having no sense of property and being self-centered, they tend to come into strife with their own age group.

Two-year-olds are not really old enough to share play with other children their own age, although they may happily play beside them. They love, and need to be near, people whom they will watch, listen to and imitate.

Crying is still their main method of protest and, if frustrated, temper tantrums are a normal expression of anger. They often fear loud noises, animals, strangers and falling.

By now they help with dressing and undressing and by their third birthday many can do it for themselves if allowed to.

Remembering things is difficult and getting muddled about instructions is common.

Their ability to make a choice is still limited. However, where before they could see only one way, now everything has an alternative.

They will not tolerate change nor accept interruption. They cannot be forced. If parents persist, the result may be a temper tantrum from which it is more difficult to distract them. Some ‘don’ts’ are important and must be enforced. However, with some thought, some other way can often be found and acceptable behavior redirected.

Tantrums
Many tantrums can be prevented by avoiding situations that are known to create frustration and boredom, such as going to the supermarket. It may be better, at this stage, to leave your toddler with a friend or at a childcare centre when you go shopping.

Frustrations breed tensions, and tantrums are one way of relieving feelings. All strong feelings are better expressed then bottled up. For children who cannot yet express anger in words, this is the obvious way to act out their feelings.

As children learn to express their feelings in words and begin to gain control of their emotions, temper tantrums tend to subside. Either to reinforce their anger with your own or to reward by giving in to their wishes is likely to prolong this sort of behavior.

It is best for adults to ignore the situation if possible, but be aware of the risk of harm to the child. When the tantrum is over a cuddle and reassurance from you will help the child to know they are still loved. To completely lose control of oneself is frightening, particularly for a child who is striving for independence.

Learning Thru Play
Early experiences and the encouragement or otherwise that toddlers receive from their parents have been shown to be far more important than previously realized. Much of their attitude to learning - which later affects what they learn at school - is established by the age of four-and-a-half.

Play is so essential that its importance can’t be overstated. This is the way they begin to get some understanding of many things, including size, weight, length, and volume.

Take water, for instance:

• It can be hot, warm or cold
• Poured on the ground, it runs away, but it behaves differently in the bath or on the floor
• Poured into a container, it takes the container’s shape and reshapes when poured into a different one
• It can be clear, colored, muddy
• It can be frozen solid, and then melt
• Bubbles can be blown in it
• Some things sink in it, some float
• It is used to wash in; to make tea; boats sail on it and fish swim in it
• It can be the beginning of understanding such things as little, big, full, empty.

The list is endless. There are many other exciting discoveries about water and other things that children will make and be eager to share with you.

Watching children play may help adults understand how they are thinking and may also give adults a fresh perspective on familiar things. Given the opportunity, children will find out some of these things for themselves. Some they can only find out with your help.

A balance between helping too much or too little is important in order to encourage them to try, without experiencing too many failures. Your pleasure in their achievements will always spur them on to further effort. The pleasure they get from their performance helps to make them feel good too, another valuable boost to their developing self-esteem.

Ask your community child health nurse for:

• More play ideas
• Information regarding playgroups in your area
• Toy library locations.

Safety
Continuous supervision is still required, as children under three cannot foresee possible dangers. Though they seem to understand so much of what is said to them, they are not yet capable of taking responsibility for their own safety. The outside world is now full of interest; doors and gates need to be secure to protect the child from dangers associated with vehicles, pools, or even undesirable people.

Cigarettes spell a special danger to inquisitive toddlers. Cigarette butts and ashtrays can cause burns and even fires, and it should also be remembered that cigarettes are poisonous - medical advice should be sought immediately if a child eats a cigarette.

All young children need protecting from passive smoking. Apart from the danger of burns from a lighted cigarette in a smoker’s hand, a child exposed to cigarette smoke can develop sensitive airways leading to asthma, bronchitis and chest infections.

At home, too, they are wanting to be more independent, and things like matches, knives, scissors, electrical equipment and poisons need to be kept safely out of their way. The most common type of accidents occurring to children of this age group is:

• Scalds and burns
• Falls
• Ingestion of poisonous substances
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Drowning
• Cutting and piercing.
• You can help prevent accidents by:
• Always insisting that your child remains in an approved child restraint whenever traveling in a car.
• Keeping medicines and garage, garden, pool and household chemicals in locked cupboards.
• Fencing your swimming pool with an approved fence and self-locking gate.
• Staying with toddlers at all times when they are in or near water, e.g. pool, dams, rivers, ocean, bath with water in and paddling pool.
• Turning the temperature of the hot water system down to 50 degrees Centigrade now that taps can be easily turned.
• Screening open fires or heaters and locking away matches.
• Keeping your child away from smokers (passive smoke) and ashtrays. Cigarettes (and cigarette butts) are poisonous.
• Dressing your child in close-fitting clothes before attending a barbecue.
• Supervising all play with ropes and toys with strings, such as pull-along toys.
• Always knowing where your child is, whether indoors or outdoors.