Toddler Milestones You Won’t Want To Miss

One minute, they’re lying in a crib with outstretched arms when you come into the nursery and in what seems like the next, ready to go off and establish themselves in a community of other children in a daycare. It’s all part of that bittersweet experience of watching your toddler grow up and the markers you can cherish as they start their journey through life are the very things every parent will want to remember. That said, here’s a collection of the toddler milestones you won’t want to miss.

Children are impatient when it comes to the business of interacting with the world around them and the first noticeable signs they are reaching out and becoming aware of the life and people outside themselves starts just after that first candle on their birthday cake.

Just after their first birthday, your little one should show the first signs of what will later become one of the trademarks of the toddler. However, the nonstop talking and questions coming from the two to three year old needs to start with the few simple words like “Hello” and “Goodbye” they have often mastered by thirteen months. Studies have shown there’s even the beginnings of self-awareness since half of children enjoy gazing at their reflections at this age.

Proof is in the Pudding  

Ask any mother or father and they’ll tell you their child is certainly gifted and well above the development curve, but the proof is in the pudding as they say and only a few babies at this age will be able to combine words and gestures to tell you what they need and want. Thirteen months is also the age when most children can stand on their own.

By the time your toddler is a year old, they will be more developed socially and emotionally and should be shy or nervous with strangers and visibly upset when Mom or Dad leaves. They might even be able to take a few steps by themselves.

The next milestone occurs when they’ve turned two. Here your toddler should be exerting their independence by talking in short sentences of two to four words and doing things he’s been told not to. He will even start repeating words he’s heard in conversations and pointing to things in a book when one is read to him.

Three years olds have learned to dress and undress themselves and copy their parent’s actions. They can start following instructions with two or three steps at this age, can play make-believe and can walk up and down stairs with one foot on each step. This is the age where their cognitive development starts to really take hold and that can mean Mom and Dad need to pay special attention to this stage, since, on the one hand, your toddler can turn the pages of a book one at a time but also a door handle.

Read more info like this at  All My Children.

Author: Rob Starr