Toddler program
Toddlers enjoy using their senses and motor skills to explore the world and are highly curious about unfamiliar objects, events and phenomena. They can solve simple problems with the "trial and error" method and will practice an activity many times to master it.
New discoveries are also facilitated by a toddler’s blossoming language skills that prompt many "why," "what" and "how" questions. During the year, children this age pick up most parts of speech to form more complete sentences. They can understand and say hundreds of words, but familiar adults may need to "translate" for others due to immature pronunciation skills
Receptive Vocabulary (words recognized when heard or seen)
A toddler understands 500 to 700 words; by 30 months, as many as 800 or 900.
The average child has the capacity to acquire one or two words per day, given access to new words in his or her daily experiences
Learns a considerable number of words when adults name objects. During this year, begins to also infer word meanings from their context in adult conversations.
Vocabulary words include many nouns (names of things, such as common objects and familiar people), and an increasing number of action words, descriptive words, pronouns and location words. Children also typically learn quantifiers (e.g., more, all, some) and question words (e.g., why, where, who, when).
Below is a snapshot of this year. The curriculum for this age group is thus developed accordingly keeping in mind all the three milestones in the same age group
How Toddlers develop this year
Children this age are laying the groundwork for reading and writing. They enjoy having books read to them and may pretend to "read" as they independently look through familiar books. Two-year-olds can sing the A-B-C song, but they don't yet understand that the letter names correspond to specific graphic designs. They also make a variety of scribble marks anywhere and everywhere and may even attempt to write the first letter of their name
As they play and complete their daily routines, toddlers learn important math skills. They can use a toy to represent another object, recognize patterns with daily activities and understand concepts of time like, "tomorrow" and "yesterday." Two-year-olds are just beginning to use logical reasoning to solve everyday problems. They can sort shapes, complete puzzles with eight pieces or less and stack a set of rings on a peg by size. They also understand addition and subtraction with the numbers "one" and "two."
Physically, toddlers explore all the ways to travel from here to there, including rolling, crawling, creeping, walking, running, jumping and climbing. They can also kick a small ball forward, catch a rolled ball and throw a ball overhand (but with little accuracy). Two-year-olds love finger play activities (e.g., "The Itsy, Bitsy, Spider"), pounding and squeezing clay, shaking rhythm instruments and scribbling. They can turn doorknobs and unscrew lids and have improved their skills using eating utensils
Toddlers also use their motor skills to explore the creative arts. They make sounds by banging and shaking instruments and household items. They enjoy dancing upon request, doing finger plays and acting out chants and songs. Children this age are also gaining control over their voices and will join in singing the refrains of their favorite songs. With art, they enjoy the sensory pleasures of the art materials and focus on the process of creating art, rather than the final product
Toddlers enjoy playing alongside other children, but usually keep to themselves. When conflicts arise, adults need to step in to prevent aggression and teach appropriate behaviors. Children this age are beginning to label feelings that they recognize in themselves and others. Controlling emotions is still difficult, however, so frustration may trigger emotional meltdowns. Comfort objects like blankets or teddy bears help two-year-olds cope with new situations or strong emotions
