Speak loudly and clearly
Most children a year and a half old speak about a dozen words. In addition to “Mom” and “Dad,” she also uses her favorite words like “rose bye,” “milk,” “mama,” “car,” and “my.” Most 2-year-olds can also connect two words to form basic sentences. You can start building sentences by connecting verbs or related words to teach them to do this. You can say, “It’s all over.”, “Let’s play ball.” or “That’s me.”
Your 2-year-old will probably try to learn to speak by imitating the adult conversations he hears. As these trial frequencies increase, you begin to hear clear words in between their conversations. If your child can’t say at least two words by age 2, remember to mention this at the next doctor’s visit; your doctor may want to do a hearing test or an evaluation by a speech pathologist.
As long as you talk, your 2-year-old will usually understand you. But because his vocabulary is still limited, he uses a combination of simple words, gestures, and body language to complete his words. In fact, you might be surprised at how much it can tell you in just a few words. When she says “cookie,” you can tell over time that she just wants cookies, but encourage her to use more words.
Many 2-year-olds now recognize their own name and react when you call out. To learn his/her name is also an important step and the words you list behind him/her will be more memorable as you have gathered his/her attention.
What can you do?
At this stage, instead of trying to correct your child’s mistakes, it’s better to appreciate and sometimes even applaud what he or she can say. For example, if your child says, “I want kiyakey,” don’t correct it to, “No, you should say crackers.” “Okay, here’s a cracker!” after you change them. Correctly modeling a word allows children to learn faster as they speak than they can be corrected. Not being constantly corrected will help boost your 2-year-old’s confidence and enthusiasm to learn or try new words.
Listen to children’s music cassettes or CDs together; it’s a great way to improve your child’s listening skills, and you may be surprised by the number of words they learn from songs.
Other developments: Comprehension, memory enhancement with games
Your child is beginning to understand that every toy, every animal, every person, everything has a name. And he gets help from you to find out. At this age, for example, he constantly emphasizes the pictures in books and asks, “What is this?” she asks and repeats until she tells him her name. He actually understands a lot more words than he can easily say and files for later use.
Between 18 and 24 months, babies may start to think more about things, keeping things in mind that you didn’t expect. For example, he/she knows which closet you always put his/her shoes in and may head to the closet without leaving the house, or he/she may stand in front of the pantry and ask for a cracker that he/she knows is there even though he/she cannot see it. If you want to test it on this ability, play a very simple version of the game of concentration. Keep a favorite toy under two or three blankets. When he removes the first layer, he will continue to search even if he does not see the toy he wants to play with. It’ll be fun for him to find out what you’re hiding.