Raising Children Network: the Australian parenting website
  • Suitable for 1-3Years

At twenty-four months

 

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Health professionals talk about a child’s age in terms of months, for example the 13th month or the 16th month. The way to make sense of this is to begin counting from the beginning of the previous month. For example, the 13th month begins when a child is 12 months old and ends when she is 13 months old. Or the 16th month begins when a child is 15 months old and ends when she is 16 months old.

 

The 24th month

By the end of this month, your toddler:

 … should be able to:

  • take off an article of clothing
  • ‘feed’ a doll
  • build a tower of four cubes
  • identify two items in a picture by pointing 


… will probably be able to:

  • build a tower of six cubes
  • throw a ball overhand
  • speak and be understood half the time
  • identify one item in a picture by naming
  • identify four items in a picture by pointing

 

  • If your toddler has not reached these milestones, doesn’t follow simple instructions, or if her language is always unintelligible, consult a health professional or a doctor. This rate of development may well be normal for your child (some children are late bloomers), but it needs to be evaluated.
  • Also check with the doctor if your toddler seems out of control or hyperactive; extremely demanding, stubborn, or negative; overly withdrawn, passive, or uncommunicative; sad or joyless; unable to interact and play with others.
  • At this age, most children who were born prematurely have caught up to their peers developmentally.

… may possibly be able to:

  • jump up
  • put on an article of clothing 

… may even be able to:

  • draw a vertical line in imitation
  • build a tower of eight cubes
  • carry on a conversation of two or three sentences

Emotional development

Two-year-olds display a wide range of emotions and behaviours, such as love, pleasure, joy and anger.  Their behaviour can be assertive and they tend to protest a lot. They talk, play and interact with parents and others, can explore new activities, and want to do things for themselves.

Intellectual development

Two-year-olds are intellectually light years ahead of where they were a year ago. Now they can form images in their minds, make judgments, categorise (dogs and cats are animals, cups and plates are dishes), and arrange things in order (lining up bricks in size order). Their memories are much more sophisticated and they are beginning to understand more abstract concepts, such as ‘more’ versus ‘less’ (though they’re not likely to be using numbers yet), ‘later’ and ‘sooner’ (but not ‘next week’), ‘the same’ and ‘different’. Their imaginations are more fertile, their play is creative, not just imitative of what they’ve seen or heard.