This is how your child develops at the age of 2 to 3 years
Is your child celebrating its second birthday and you are curious how its development will continue in the coming year? Find out everything about the important development steps that await you during this time.
Walking and motor skills: climbing, jumping, hopping
At the age of two to three, your child is not only able to run, jump and hop. During this time, it learns an incredible number of new movement patterns: for example, walking on tiptoe, climbing up small ladders or balancing on one foot. Doors are opened easily, lids are unscrewed from cans and the steps are climbed without outside help. Even getting dressed and undressed is much easier now than it was some time ago.
Most children between the ages of 24 and 30 months can:
- Roll your foot from heel to toe as you walk
- Hold your balance briefly while standing on one leg
- Bounce down from a step and land safely
- Wash and dry your hands alone
- Eat alone with a spoon
- Turn book pages one by one
- Build a tower out of four blocks
Half of the children from 24 to 30 months of age can:
- Brush your teeth with help
- Run while avoiding obstacles
- Undress alone
Few children from 24 to 30 months can:
- Draw horizontal lines
- Hold and use a pen correctly
- Getting dressed and undressed
- Solve simple puzzles
- Thread beads onto a string
Most children between the ages of 31 and 36 months can:
- Balance on one leg for at least one second
- Brush your teeth with help
- Draw a vertical line freehand
- Eat alone with a spoon
- Solve simple puzzles
- Looking at a picture book alone
- Build a tall tower out of blocks
- Thread beads onto a string
- Throw a ball over your head
Half of the children from 31 to 36 months of age can:
- Run while avoiding obstacles
- Undress alone
- Draw horizontal lines
Few children from 31 to 36 months can:
- hold and use a pen correctly
- draw a circle
- dressing and undressing alone
Speaking and understanding: Constantly new words
Your child’s vocabulary is already very large. It can formulate complete sentences and instead of humming, it can now also sing a song and articulate the individual lines correctly. Your child is now talking more and more about themselves and what they are doing and what they like. You understand at least half of what your child is saying at this point.
Most children between the ages of 24 and 30 months can:
- Speak clearly and understandably often
- Use 50 words
- Speak two-word sentences
- Talking about themselves, e.g. what they like
- Follow two-part instructions, e.g. “Get the doll and put it in the box!”
- Naming a color
- Name six body parts
Half of the children from 24 to 30 months of age can:
- Speak clearly and understandably for the most part
- Sing a simple melody
- Begin to notice gender differences
Few children from 24 to 30 months can:
- Always speak clearly and understandably
- Name more than one color
Most children between the ages of 31 and 36 months can:
- Name at least six body parts
- Make sentences of four to five words
Half of the children from 31 to 36 months of age can:
- Use prepositions like “on”, “under”, “in”.
- Follow three-part instructions
Few children from 31 to 36 months can:
- Calling a friend by name
Mental and Motor Skills: Imagination and Creativity
Your child can now imagine things. It also now has the ability to think in categories and create different orders. For the first time, your child will now clearly perceive the difference between the sexes. This often means that they begin to imitate the behavior of their own sex, which they have observed, for example, in their mother or father. Sometimes, however, the boy likes to imitate the activities of female attachment figures or the girl those of male family members. However, this behavior is completely normal and part of the child’s joy of experimentation. By the time your child is three years old, their motor skills have developed to the point where they can turn the pages of a book and eat their own food with a spoon and without making a mess. In addition, he now manages to build a high tower out of lots of building blocks and to put together a puzzle. The fine motor skills are now even mature enough to thread beads onto a string. Even if your child is not yet actively playing with others, the company of other children will stimulate them in their activities. Although it still depends a lot on your support, your child is now becoming more and more independent. Completely new worlds open up to him with his well-developed speech and movement skills. Although it still depends a lot on your support, your child is now becoming more and more independent. Completely new worlds open up to him with his well-developed speech and movement skills. Although it still depends a lot on your support, your child is now becoming more and more independent. Completely new worlds open up to him with his well-developed speech and movement skills.
If you would like to support your child in getting to know numbers in these early years, we have beautiful learning books for you and for arithmetic here, which are also tailored to our little ones.