2 Years
- Children use 150-300 words.
- Children use 2 pronouns (e.g. I, me, you, mine).
- Children use two-word combinations most of the time. (e.g. “more cookie”, “hi mommy”, “no cookie”).
- Children speak clearly enough to be understood about 2/3 of the time.
- Children point to familiar actions/activities in pictures (e.g. sleeping, eating).
- Children follow directions like “Get your coat.”, “Put the block on.” without accompanying gestures.
- Children choose among common objects when asked (e.g. “Find the comb.”, “Where’s the baby?”).
- Children enjoy playing with other children.
- Children show increasing interest in books and may “read” to stuffed toys.
- Children take turns during conversations with you.
How to make daily routines into language learning opportunities:
- Language learning happens all day long. If you talk to children while you are doing what you do every day, you are helping them learn new words.
- When you use short sentences, you are giving children a model of language that they eventually will be able to use.
- When you are doing the laundry, sentences like “Put the sock in.” and “Take the shirt out.” can be repeated. You can never say a word or phrase too many times. Children need a lot of repetition to learn new words and phrases.
- During meal time, dressing time and bath time, talk to children about things they show interest in. Give them the models of short sentences that they can use.
- You can repeat short sentences such as “Put your sock on.” and “Take your shoes off.” during dressing time, and sentences like “The water is hot.” and “Splash the water.” at bath time.
- Provide children with different categories of words, like size (e.g. “I see a big ball.”) or location words (e.g. The ball is on the table.”). If children have words that can be combined into sentences, they have an easier time learning to speak in sentences.
- Children at this age love to sing songs and participate in the song. Songs such as “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “The Eensy Weensy Spider” provide both fun and language learning opportunities. After you have sung the song or rhyme many times with children, wait for them to fill in the words at particular points during the song.