What should 2.5 year old know

Your toddler's growing vocabulary includes a couple hundred words. Reading , songs, and nursery rhymes are fun ways to build on growing language skills. Doctors use certain milestones to tell if a toddler is developing as expected.

There's a wide range of what's considered normal, so some children gain skills earlier or later than others. At this age, kids can typically:. Two-year-olds typically start to be more independent and more interested in other kids.

But not having the words to express themselves can be frustrating. By the end of this year, kids will likely do things like this:. Show increasing separation anxiety by 18 months, which typically eases a lot by 24 months; become increasingly independent and aware of themselves as their own person between 24 and 36 months. All kids develop at their own rate, and some take more time to gain skills than others.

Take a look forward at developmental milestones for 3-year-olds. He picks himself up when he falls, and he tries again. More on: Signs and symptoms. Share Developmental milestones for 2-year-olds. Your little one will most likely have started to ask lots of questions. Find out what else to expect over the next six months.

Your child will most likely have started to make proper friends. Read more about what to expect at this stage. Reading, including the association of words with objects and activities, is fun and quite critical at this age.

Imagination is growing at this age, so books, stories, and make-believe play are getting more interesting to your child. Children this age play roles and enact scenarios rather than just imitate simple actions with toys. This leap forward of imagination means that new fears, worries, and anxieties may start to pop up.

Dreams and nightmares are evidence of the hard work your child is doing to put her exciting world in order. She's likely to be a little more hesitant in new situations than she was a few months ago, but she'll also be more interested in trying out her interactive skills with new people once she is comfortable. Your child will start to want to put things in order, so tidying up after play will be an easier task, provided you break it into manageable parts: "Pick up all the blocks; now pick up the cars.