When your child turns two, he/she is no longer a baby. Your “baby” is now a toddler. Congratulations!

With their 2-year-old birthday comes many new physical skills, pretend play and tantrums. (Yep, tantrums are normal at this stage!)

As parents, we want to be sure that our children are developing as they are supposed to. That’s why there are developmental milestones. It tells us how our child is supposed to play, learn, speak and act – as compared with other children their age. The 2 year old milestones indicate the things most children can do by this age.

The information below and the infographic was created based on data received from the doctors and scientist at the CDC – Center for Disease Control. You can, therefore, trust that the data has been thoroughly researched. Having said that, don’t forget that kids develop differently. That is normal, so don’t panic if your child is a little late on certain activities. He/she may be early on other things. However, the CDC advises that if you have any concerns about your child’s development, do contact your child’s pediatrician for an evaluation to see if early intervention could help develop your child’s skills.

2 Year Old Milestones: Social and Emotional Development

Your two year old will likely:

• Copy what adults and children say, and also how they say it;
• Be excited to play with other kids;
• Show independence by doing things by themselves;
• Show defiance and disobey more than before. Your two year old will test you by doing things he/she was told not to do;
• Throw tantrums when frustrated;
• Will initially play beside other children, but will gradually play with other children.

2 Year Old Milestones: Physical Development

Gross Motor Skills

•  Your toddler can run and jump with both feet;
• Climbs up and down furniture or the playground without any help.
• Pull and carry toys while running or walking;
• Can kick a ball and throw it overhand;
• Walks up and down the stairs, possibly holding on and/or using alternate feet;
• Stand on their tiptoes;

Fine Motor Skills

• Learn to brush their own teeth and hair;
• May pull their pants up and down;
• Makes or copies straight lines and circles;
• Turn on the faucet, wash hands, flush the toilet;
• Build a block tower;
• Practices with zipping up and snaps.

2 Year Old Milestones: Language Development

• Can point to things as you name them;
• Knows the names of body parts, everyday objects and familiar people;
• Says 2-4 word sentences;
• Can follow simple instructions;
• Repeat words they hear;
• Can point to things in a book;

2 Year Old Milestones: Cognitive Development

Toward the end of the second year, most 2-year-olds are able to do the following:

• Name items in a picture book, like cat, dog, bird;
• Can follow two-step instructions, like: “pick up the pencil and place it in the drawer.”
• May use one hand more than the other;
• Builds block towers of 4 blocks or more;
• Plays simple make-believe and pretend plays;
• Group shapes and colors;
• Can complete sentences and rhymes of familiar nursery rhymes or songs;
• Do 3-4 piece puzzles;
• Find hidden things.

By playing with toys like these, toddlers develop fine and gross motor skills, they learn colors, sorting and counting. This wooden educational toy set is available from Amazon.com.

2 Year Old Developmental Milestones – A Few Helpful Resources:

Note From The Author

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I trust you will find the checklist quite helpful.

Just one more thing – the education toy displayed above is for 2 and 3 year olds but if your 2 year old is still putting things in their mouth, please supervise them while they’re playing with this wooden toy set.