The age of two to three is an exciting time in all aspects of child development and a period when many parents report that things “get fun.” Of course you’ve been treasuring all those moments holding your infant and soothing all that crying, but your newly mobile and increasingly communicative toddler can now accompany you on a whole new range of activities.
As their language capabilities increase, we get to know our kids better and get a peek into all the beautiful and sometimes crazy things going on in their little heads. This is a pivotal time, with some expected milestones and anticipated turbulence.
The Terrible Twos versus the Terrific Twos
The term “terrible twos” is a tongue-in-cheek way to refer to the occasional tantrums and fits that are all too common when kids reach this age of newfound independence. In the linguistic realm, however, the age of two ushers in a series of positive milestones, many of which are centered around that very same number. Turning two brings with it several linguistic twos, like two-word phrases, two-part instructions, and two-way conversations.
Those two-word phrases may be simple sentences like “I’m hungry” or just little descriptors like “pretty doggy.” The two-step instructions are more complex requests and instructions, such as a two-part request to “Eat a banana and drink your juice.” These may sound like trivial achievements, but are in fact linguistic lightyears away from where your child likely was just months ago.
The two-way conversations are where the fun really starts, as you can explore enriching and enjoyable areas like answering your child’s questions about the world and making little jokes with one another. These are some of the most beautiful moments of parenthood, as these little conversations are not only major milestones in your child’s language development, but also create gratifying moments that can turn into lifelong memories.
Your Own Special Language
Many parents are rightfully delighted to witness this explosion of linguistic prowess and may marvel at how they’re now holding full-on conversations with their little ones. This pride can suffer a little shock, however, when your child is conversing with someone else, a distant relative, pediatrician, etc., and the other party is struggling mightily to understand what your child is saying. Parents or caregivers often leap into the interpreter role here and it’s not uncommon to get overly defensive of your child’s speaking abilities in the face of communication snafus with others. Parents may even get annoyed with the adult, thinking “Well of course ‘ebble bad’ means ‘My elbow hurts.’ How obvious can you get?”
The truth is that from the age of 2-3, kids and their parents or caregiver are unwittingly developing their own special language – and that’s great! – that others will require some time to understand. It’s important to remember that it is entirely normal for others to not be able to understand what your little one is saying, and while some studies report that only 50% of what your child says can be understood by strangers, they also show that intelligibility increases rapidly from age two on.
Patience while Powering through Comprehension Difficulties
It can be easy for parents to get overexcited about their child’s progress at this stage and begin to expect or demand too much of their little one’s skills. It is common for kids to forget a once-familiar word from one day to the next, backstep in regard to their ability to conjugate verbs, and even experience full regressions back to baby talk (temporarily).
Like most of parenting, the key is patience and helpfully correcting errors while modeling good behaviors. Keep in mind that kids need significant time to develop the auditory skills to decipher different kinds of speech and need to practice shifting their tongues and mouths to form various word sounds.
Some sounds are notoriously tricky for kids, namely consonant blends like “th” and “sh.” The word “wish” may sound more like “witch,” and “mouth” will likely sound more like “mouf.” This is no cause for concern, and an expected stop along their linguistic journey.
It’s important to remember that kids are doing all this learning without the benefit of one of our greatest language tools as adults – words. While we can use our knowledge of individual letters to decipher new words and work out their pronunciation, kids must do all this strictly by ear. Always try to speak clearly and slowly to kids, facing them if you can, so that they’re getting the best input possible.
How to Encourage Linguistic Development at Age 2-3
At this stage, it’s hard to find activities that won’t help your child’s linguistic capabilities, as nearly any activity or outing is rich with opportunities to learn and practice new words, grammar, pronunciation, etc. If possible, you can provide a selection of activities, such as singing songs or reading a favorite book, then let your child decide which they want to do. This will likely help them be more engaged in the activity, and you can use that motivation to aid language acquisition.
Like every stage of linguistic progression, it’s a good idea to err on the side of more information rather than less. It’s not quite time for spelling quizzes and rigorous memorization tests, but exposure to as much language as possible will help them as they speed their way toward linguistic competence and fluency.
