Growth & Development, ages 2-3 years

Growth & Development, ages 2-3 years

I have listed down some of the common factors to determine basic skills development for children aged 2- 3 years.  

Health & Wellness 

In order to teach our children to choose health, we must model wellness and take charge of our own health. Wellness is not just having an absence of symptoms. It’s asking yourself how you can attain outstanding health. It’s making exercise and stress reduction a daily part of your lifestyle, choosing healthy foods and modeling this behavior for your children When we adopt an attitude of wellness, we take on a belief that being well is a natural, normal state. Our goal is to have outstanding, vibrant health, not just to be free of disease. We can teach and help our children to grow up with an attitude of wellness. Children have much more control over their own health than you may think.

Areas of Concern if most of the below trackers are a "NO"

Does your child respond when you call?
Can your child walk on the toes?
Does your child walk with swaying motion? If this is continuous & going on for some time please consult your doctor.
Does your child face any difficulty getting up from a lying or sitting position? Check with your doctor & seek advice.
Does your child complain that he/she is finding it difficult to see or its blurry? Check with your doctor & seek advice.
Does your child have any trouble breathing while running, walking or playing? Check with your doctor & seek advice.
Does your child have trouble learning to sit or walk? Check with your doctor & seek advice.
Does your child frown or narrow eyes while playing or looking at something?

Tip: Every child needs to get enough time to play, learn, eat, drink, sleep so planning is very important. Do not go overboard by keeping the child occupied in many things, this will lead to lack of interest & anxiety. Make sure your champ gets at least 10-11 hours of sleep every day for the body to work efficiently & effectively.

Speech & Language Development

Children vary in their development of speech and language skills. However, they follow a natural progression or timetable for mastering the skills of language.The milestones help doctors and other health professionals determine if a child is on track or if he or she may need extra help. Sometimes a delay may be caused by hearing loss, while other times it may be due to a speech or language disorder.

Areas of Concern if most of the below trackers are a "NO"

Does your child call themselves by name
Does your child understand sentences
Does your child understand the gender?
Does your child reply yes or no without hesitation?

TIP: Children in the age group of 2-3 years talk to themselves while playing, this is perfectly normal. It is a positive sign do not panic or try to understand the logic behind it. 

Eye Hand Coordination Skills

Hand-eye coordination is defined as the use of the eyes to direct muscles towards a task, such as eating or brushing our hair. How does that work? Let's take a look.First, visual input is processed in our brains. Next, the brain sends signals to muscles to move to a specific location, determined by eye movement and focus. Finally, our muscles require fine motor skills, or the ability to control small muscle movements like picking up something small.

Areas of Concern if most of the below trackers are a "NO"

Can they open gift boxes or any other packed product for you
Is your child able to wear clothes on their own
Is your child able to open/unscrew bottles/lids
Can your child make blocks of boxes/canisters/blocks

TIP: Ask your child to draw a circle with the help of a bottle or any round shaped object, ask them to unwrap things for you.

Physical Growth Development

What many people miss is that physical development is closely linked to other types of development as well. A child's motor skills develop before their higher cognitive skills, like problem solving. Children will be able to explore even more of his environment, taking a trip across the living room to check out what the curtains on the windows. They are learning about the world around,cognitive development is springing from his motor development, which came from the physical development of his brain and body to be able to allow him to control himself in relation to his environment.

Areas of Concern if most of the below trackers are a "NO"

Does your child help you in doing daily scores at home.
Is your child climbing some places with the help of storage containers, boxes or any other thing
If your child able to balance on one feet for few second
Is your child able to bend down to pick up things without falling
If your child able to play with toys that has moving parts

TIP:  Outdoor activity is a very important part of the child’s development; it helps them develop strength in Hand, arms, legs and balance.

Cognitive Skills

Cognitive skill development in children involves the progressive building of learning skills, such as attention, memory and thinking. These crucial skills enable children to process sensory information and eventually learn to evaluate, analyze, remember, make comparisons and understand cause and effect.

Parents and teachers can help a child develop his ability to focus by pointing out things that seem important or interesting and then asking the child to comment on his observations. For example, a trip to the zoo might result in some specific questions, like 'What animal was your favorite? and What did you like best about this animal?' Questions like these help the child pay closer attention to what he is exposed to and also challenge his ability to choose specific words to describe his thoughts. A useful technique for facilitating memory in children, especially when there is a lot of information, is teaching content with rhymes or catchy sayings or putting content to music.

Areas of Concern if most of the below trackers are a "NO"

Is your child able to count no of books, toys?
Does your child recognize body parts
Does your child Recognize signs/symbols
Can he/she match the picture with an object
Can he/she scribble
Can he/she recognise objects/labels
Is your child able to recall what happened yesterday or few days back
Is your child able to sing rhymes though it may be incorrect

TIP:  Recite songs/rhymes at least once a day with your child this will help them pick up the tune and the words. Show them animals using a toy or photo whenever it is possible.

Social & Emotional Development

Social-emotional development includes the child’s experience, expression, and management of emotions and the ability to establish positive and rewarding relationships with others. Infants experience, express, and perceive emotions before they fully understand them. In learning to recognize, label, manage, and communicate their emotions and to perceive and attempt to understand the emotions of others, children build skills that connect them with family, peers, teachers, and the community. These growing capacities help young children to become competent in negotiating increasingly complex social interactions, to participate effectively in relationships and group activities, and to reap the benefits of social support crucial to healthy human development and functioning.

Areas of Concern if most of the below trackers are a "NO"

Is your child showing affection to friends without prompting
Is your child able to stay away from you
Does your child like to copy adults
Does your child express affection
Does your child express anger/happiness/crankiness

TIP:  At this age the child develops emotions so they should have enough toys around them to be busy & explore. You will notice they start liking a certain a toy and cuddle with it more often. This is a very good development of the child emotions. 


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