What should a child be able to by two years?

By the end of the second year of life, the child is able to throw and roll the ball, consciously follow it to again repeat the same action. And some children already get to catch the ball thrown by them. They do this, of course, awkwardly and do not always catch, but if they help, that is, throwing the ball slightly and directing their actions (say: "Move the knobs and catch the ball"), sometimes their attempt to catch the abandoned ball ends successfully. This leads the child into such enthusiasm that these feelings are transmitted to the adult. The main thing is that the ball was big, otherwise the child will not be able to catch it.

By the middle-end of the second year of life, children are beginning to learn quite a variety of movements. For example, they begin to carry things in hand, or, taking in an armful, drag them from place to place. If the object is too large and heavy, they move it, pushing back and forth. These actions, as a rule, do not have a big meaning and can even cause your irritation, but do not be angry about it for our "Pupsik". Let them perform "Sisyphean labor". Dragging objects from room to room, hiding them behind a bed or curtains, removing them from the shelf and placing them on the windowsill, children develop their motor skills, develop precision and coordination of movements, coordinate the work of hands, feet and eyes. Thus, this meaningless (from your point of view) activity leads to development of stability of attention, accuracy of actions and perception, development of strong-willed efforts of the child.

In the third year of life, when walking is basically mastered, the objective actions become more and more labor: the child does not just carry a mop with him, smearing dirt (that's what you think) -he tries to wash the floor. He does not spoil the kitchen towel, but wipes the dust, just like you do. (True, you use a special rag, and the baby that found it) wiped it off. If you left the iron for a while, the child will definitely try to "stroke" something. (The main thing is that it does not burn at the same time!). And if you find a hammer, it will "fix" a bench, a table or something else, if he had seen it before, like a dad does. He will drum up imaginary "nails" until he finds his work finished.

These actions indicate a significantly increased capacity for the child. He imitates the actions of an adult, his actions become clear and reasonable.

In the third year of life, further differentiation of leg movements continues. As the digestive-finger walking skill is improved, the child becomes more and more stable. He no longer needs to spread his legs too far to keep his balance. This leads to better coordination of movements during walking. But with fast corners of the body, the child still unevenly distributes its weight to different parts of the feet and therefore may fall. At the same time, the child remains stable when carrying the body from one leg to the other, so that the descent and ascent from the stairs or to the stairs will become more and more perfect. Equilibrium develops, so the child learns to stand on one leg. This skill leads to another - the child is already able to hit one foot on the ball, even if he was not shown this movement before. The ability to move the center of gravity and still maintain stability allows the child to learn a new way of moving - stepping over low objects. All these skills (balance, mobility) form the basis for improving the race. By the age of three, the child increasingly likes games in which you need to quickly escape from the pursuers, look back at them and dodge their hands. True, the child can not jump off the platform yet due to insufficient coordination of the legs. The fact is that the legs must perform the same movement. A child can jump from an elevation, holding on to the railing and exposing one leg forward.

Simultaneously with the improvement of movements at the age of two to three years, the development of initial ideas about the magnitude, shape and location of objects in space continues. The child starts picking up items according to the pattern, composing pyramids, building towers of 6-7 cubes, placing them scarcely in the horizontal plane - building fences, train, etc. This requires well-coordinated two-way actions. Continues to improve the manipulation of small items. The child, at first awkwardly, and then more freely, turns the pages of the book, puts small objects in small holes. He already takes the pencil not with the whole palm, but with the tips of his fingers. This method of capture facilitates arbitrary movements in the wrist joint. This allows you to freely reproduce vertical and horizontal lines on paper.

With the development of differentiated and controlled movements in the wrist joint, the child is able to act simultaneously with both hands, but in different ways. For example, when a baby tears a paper, one hand pulls the sheet towards the body, and the other in the opposite direction. However, the process of simultaneous movement of hands in different directions at this age is not yet perfect.

The increase in the strength of the muscles of the fingers allows the child to use the clothes pegs in the game. He is already able to cut paper with scissors, if he is helped to put scissors on his fingers.

If at the beginning of the second year of life the child could perform only one action indicated to him, then by the end of the second year he begins to understand, remember and fulfill several requirements. For example: "Go to the shelf, put a plate in the box with dishes!", Or "Bring a small white bunny from another room," or "Go to your room and take off your shoes and put on slippers."

Thus, the first consequence of the child's mastery of free walking is the dramatically increasing opportunity between the first and third years of life to perform various movements and actions with objects. This leads, first, to the fact that the child gets acquainted with a lot of new things for him; secondly, to the development of his sense organs: first of all, of sight, of touch, of hearing, which begin to work together more and more consistently; thirdly, the performance of various simple actions with objects develops the large and small muscles of the child, the muscles of his trunk, legs, hands, that is, the entire neurological apparatus that he needs to perform further more complex actions.

In the process of training and independent activity of the child, one must be trained not just to manipulate a particular object, but to use it for its intended purpose and to perform various targeted actions with it. For example, when playing with a pyramid, the baby first develops the ability to remove and put on rings. When he takes possession of these actions, he must be taught that he first take off all the rings, and then put it on again. And you need to explain that you first put on large rings, and then small ones.

It is necessary to teach the child to add cubes, build a fence, a locomotive, etc. If you accompany your lessons with words ("Put this cube behind the red, and this one even further") then, thanks to this game, the children will learn what is form, color, size of objects, they begin to form a spatial concept (next, further, ahead, behind, etc.).