Child 2-3 years Feeling, Thinking & Relating – As parents, we all want to understand and support our children’s emotional development as they grow up. One critical stage in a child’s life is between the ages of 2-3 years old when they go through significant changes in their cognitive, emotional, and social development. Understanding how your child feels, thinks, and relates during this period can help you provide appropriate guidance and support.
During this phase, your child’s ability to express their emotions will improve, but they may still struggle with managing them. Tantrums and meltdowns are common as your child tries to communicate their needs and desires. At the same time, their thinking skills will also develop rapidly. Your child will start to ask questions, explore, and experiment with the world around them.
Child 2-3 years Feeling, Thinking & Relating
Feeling
1. Emotional control legs behind, despite childern this age having started to master control of their bodies. This emotional maturity will come as their limbic system continues to develop, a process that will not be fully complete until they reach adulthood.
2. Extreme of emotion are common until this control develops further. Two and 3 years old can switch between swiling and shrieking in a matter of moments.
3. Exercising new-found capabilities is seen a lot at this time ; childern will want to show their growing autonomy with demands such as “Me do it!”.
4. Egocentricity is normal for 2 year olds. Childern may want to be boss but they’re also learning the world is a place where not everyone does their bidding – and its then that tantrums can erupt.
5. Outbursts are likely to trail off by the age of 3 as childern’s blossoming vocabulary allows them to start to exspress verbally how they feel and start to understand the reasens for rules.
6. Emotional intelligence builds in this phase. Childern notice that other people have wants and feelings , too.
7. Learning how action affect parents is apparent by 3 – so childern are eager to make them happy, although they still feel a strong drive to follow their impulses.
Thinking
1. The brain is about 80% of its adult size at age
2. Reasoning , emotion & memories all are governed by the frontal lobes , wich are developing fast.
3. Skill develop with lightening speed – up to eight new words a day , for example , in speecsh – as connections between brain cells with rapidly.
4. Imagination takes off as childern start to name object and characters in their world and remember them. There will be lots of games of ” lets pretend….”
5. Fascination with cause & effect sees childern curious to discover what happens if they push over their block tower or pour water from a jug.
6. Memory growth means 2 years old say “go swing” , for example , before you’ve arrived at the playground. By 3 childern get exited about seeing people they and start anticipated christmast and birthdays.
7. Improved recall enables childern to look forward to seeing the pictures and the following page of their favourite books, wich their enjoy reading over and over.
Relating
1. Racing ahead with their language mirrors the great steps forward in their walking and running
2. Able to understand many more words than they can
say. Around the age of 2, childern have a bank of between 50 and 200 words
3. A fast-expanding vocabulary means that by the end of their third year, childern know 1000-2000 words.
4. A running commentary is the result of their new-found joy in language. Childern describe what they are doing as they play and practice trying out new sound.
5. Pronunciation is still improving but childern may make a “t” sound instead of a “k” , as in “tate” for “cake” , for example. As many as half of their words may be hard to dechiper.
6. Clearer speech and better connections exist betwen muscles governing speech and their brains. So , by the end of their third year you should be able to understand almost everything your child says.
