What should a child be able to do by the age of two?

By the end of the second year of life, the child can throw and roll a ball, consciously follow it to repeat the same action again. Moreover, some children already manage to catch the ball thrown to them. Naturally, they do this awkwardly and do not always catch it, but if you help them, that is, throw the ball lightly and guide their actions (say: "Move your hands and catch the ball"), then sometimes their attempt to catch the thrown ball ends successfully. This brings such delight to the child that these feelings are transmitted to the adult. The main thing is that the ball is big, otherwise the child will not be able to catch it.

By the middle to the end of the second year of life, children begin to master quite a variety of movements. For example, they begin to carry things in their hands, or, taking them in their arms, drag them from place to place. If the object is too big and heavy, they move it by pushing it back and forth. As a rule, these actions do not have much meaning and can even irritate you, but you should not be angry with our "babies" for this. Let them do the "Sisyphean labor". Dragging objects from room to room, hiding them behind the bed or curtains, taking them off the shelf and placing them on the windowsill, children develop their motor skills, develop precision and coordination of movements, coordinate the work of their hands, feet and eye. Thus, this meaningless (from your point of view) activity leads to the development of stability of attention, precision of actions and perception, the development of the child's volitional efforts.

In the third year of life, when walking is mostly mastered, object actions increasingly become labor-related: the child does not simply drag a mop around, smearing dirt (that's what you think) - he tries to wash the floor. He does not dirty the kitchen towel, but wipes off dust, just like you do. (True, you use a special rag. And the baby wipes off whatever he finds). If you leave the iron for a while, the child will definitely try to "iron" something. (The main thing is that he does not burn himself!). And if he finds a hammer, he will "fix" a bench, a table or something else, if he has seen his dad do something like that before. He will hammer in imaginary "nails" until he considers his work complete.

These actions indicate that the child's capabilities have increased significantly. He imitates the actions of an adult, his actions become clear and reasonable.

In the third year of life, further differentiation of leg movements continues. As the heel-toe walking skill improves, the child becomes more and more stable. He no longer needs to spread his legs too wide to maintain balance. This leads to improved coordination of movements when walking. But when quickly turning the body, the child still distributes his weight unevenly on different parts of the feet and can therefore fall. At the same time, the child maintains stability when transferring the body from one leg to the other, due to which going up and down stairs or down stairs will become more and more perfect. Balance also develops, due to which the child learns to stand on one leg. This skill leads to another - the child already knows how to kick a ball with one foot, even if he has not been shown this movement before. The ability to shift the center of gravity and at the same time maintain stability gives the child the opportunity to master a new way of movement - stepping over low objects. All these skills (balance, mobility) create the basis for improving running. By the age of three, the child increasingly enjoys games in which he or she must quickly run away from pursuers, look back at them, and dodge their hands. However, the child cannot yet jump off a raised platform due to insufficient leg coordination. The fact is that the legs must perform the same movement. The child can jump off a raised platform by holding onto the railing and putting one leg forward.

Simultaneously with the improvement of movements at the age of two to three years, the development of initial ideas about the size, shape and location of objects in space continues. The child begins to select objects according to a pattern, make pyramids, build towers of 6-7 cubes, arrange them in a row in a horizontal plane - build fences, a train, etc. This requires well-coordinated bilateral actions. Manipulation of small objects continues to improve. The child, at first awkwardly, and then more freely, turns the pages of a book, inserts small objects into small holes. He already takes a pencil not with the whole palm, but with the fingertips. This method of gripping facilitates voluntary movements in the wrist joint. This allows for more free reproduction of vertical and horizontal lines on paper.

With the development of differentiated and controlled movements in the wrist joint, the child gains the ability to act with both hands simultaneously, but in different ways. For example, when a child tears paper, one hand pulls the sheet toward the body, and the other in the opposite direction. However, the process of simultaneous movement of the hands in different directions at this age is not yet perfect enough.

The increase in finger muscle strength allows the child to use clothespins in play. He is already able to cut paper with scissors if you help him put the scissors on his fingers.

If at the beginning of the second year of life the child could perform only one action indicated to him, then by the end of the second year he begins to understand, remember and perform several requirements. For example: "Go to the shelf, put the plate in the box with dishes!", or "Bring a little white bunny from the other room", or "Go to your room, take off your shoes there and put on slippers."

Thus, the first consequence of a child mastering free walking is the sharply increasing ability to perform various movements and actions with objects between the first and third years of life. This leads, firstly, to the child becoming acquainted with many new things; secondly, to the development of his senses: primarily sight, touch, hearing, which begin to work more and more harmoniously with each other; thirdly, performing various simple actions with objects develops the child's large and small muscles, the muscles of his torso, legs, arms, that is, the entire neurophysical apparatus that he needs to perform more complex actions in the future.

During lessons and independent activities, the child should be taught not just to manipulate this or that object, but to use it for its intended purpose and perform various target actions with it. For example, when playing with a pyramid, the child first develops the ability to remove and put on rings. When he has mastered these actions, he should be taught to first remove all the rings and then put them on again. Moreover, it should be explained that first the large rings are put on, and then the small ones.

You need to teach your child to stack cubes, build a fence, a train, etc. If you accompany your lessons with words ("Put this cube behind the red one, and this one even further away"), then, thanks to such a game, children will learn what shape, color, and size of objects are, and they will begin to develop a spatial concept (near, further, in front, behind, etc.).