Areas of toddler development include gross motor skills, fine motor skills, language skills, cognitive skills and social development. Although each child grows and develops at a different pace, pediatricians look for certain milestones to determine how toddlers are developing relative to others in their age group. If you have a concern about a possible developmental delay, speak with your child's pediatrician.
Gross Motor Skills
Gross motor skills include large muscle groups. Actions like running and walking involve gross motor skills. Walking is a milestone that most parents anxiously await. Although the range is broad, most toddlers walk by the time they are 17 months old. Some little ones start walking well as early as eight months. Each toddler is different.
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills involve smaller groups of muscles. Eating, coloring, fastening buttons or pulling zippers involve fine motor skills. By age two, your toddler should be able to scribble, build four blocks in a tower and put small pieces into a bowl. Your toddler may favor one hand over the other, but whether she's a left-handed writer or a right-handed writer becomes clear around the age of three.
Language Development
The excitement of hearing your child's first word is like nothing else. However, every toddler moves at his own pace. Some children utter basic syllables until they are two years old or older, while some toddlers are able to speak in simple phrases by eighteen months. Pediatricians look for your child to speak a few single words by a year and half. They expect your toddler to speak simple phrases by his second birthday.
Cognitive Development
Problem-solving and reasoning are examples of cognitive skills. Toddlers use their senses to figure out the world around them. They also like to manipulate and experiment with objects to figure out cause and effect actions. After a year or more of this exploration, your 2-year-old child will be able to find objects hidden under blankets and sort objects by their color or shape. They will also take an interest in imaginative play; they watch their parents carefully and imitate their actions.
Social Skills
How a toddler interacts with peers and adults determines his social progress. Watch how he reacts to new people and family members. His response to other's emotions also helps you gauge his social progress. Around age two, toddlers will start to recognize that their actions elicit responses from other people. Their enthusiasm toward peers should start to increase around age two. However, separation anxiety may also start to develop at this age.
