The Terrible Twos - Essay Example

The Terrible Twos The Terrible twos Child development is a process that involves various changes in behavior. It involves behavioral, social and biological changes experienced from birth all the way to adolescence stage. In the process of developing, the child displays diverse traits in different ages and stages. These traits and behaviors results to great concerns to parents since they are unaware of child behaviors at different stages and ages. Child development is a continuous process displaying a predictable sequence with unique course for each child. One of the critical stage and age is the 2-year-old stage. The stage is commonly known as “The terrible twos” because children display traits that reveal their ability to act like a grown up bully. Therefore, these traits raise concern to parents since they are unable to understand their children appropriately. Behavioral development may consist of change in character and development of various skills of the child. For instance, a child at two years starts showing a character of increasing independence. Some refer the age as “I want to do it myself” age. At this stage, the child always wants to do everything for him or herself. Although it is bittersweet for the caring parents, it is an important stage for the child’s social and personal development. Children develop various skills at the age of 2. Most of these skills are acquired through observation and experience as their parents perform various activities. For example, a child develops a skill of undressing as he or she observes others doing. Eventually, the child undergoes through several clothing changes in a day because he or she can. However, others may resist changing clothes when the parents want them to change their apparel. Therefore, parents should be flexible and give in to the child’s wants at some instances. The child may also develop cognitive and physical skills like learning how to use the toilet at the age of 2. At this stage, the child will signal the parent or the guardian when he or she wants to use the toilet. Other skills developed by children at the age of two years include catching a sneeze and brushing teeth (Child and Adolescent Health Service, 2012). However, two years old children have various biological development problems. These include lack of true mental operations, deficit in functioning such as centration, animism, egocentrism and lack of appearance-reality. Centration is the tendency to attend or concentrate on one aspect of the situation and exclude other aspects. Egocentrism is the inability to distinguish ones perspective effectively from other people’s perspectives. Egocentrism does not occur uniformly among children. The belief that all objects possess or have life is known as animism. Children may believe that objects such as trees have life and behave like human beings. Lastly, lack of appearance-reality is the inability to keep true characteristics of something or an object in mind. At the age of two years, children have the problem of lacking appearance- reality (Early Childhood: Learning and Cognition I ppt). Biological development is also evidenced in two-year-olds through different ways. These children exhibit biological development though improved level of intelligence, understanding, reasoning and language development. The level of intelligence is also found to increase as the child develop biologically. Children also become ambitious to understand the various rules and regulations and how sensible these rules are. Due to their ambition to understand various things, these children tend to be highly talkative and full of questions. They always ask questions about everything they come across and try to understand how and why some things happen. They demand explanations of different things in response to their unlimited questions (FamilyEducation, 2014). According to Child and Adolescent Health Service (2012), two years old children do not understand what is real and what is not real. Therefore, these children develop numerous questions when they watch some programs and other things that are not real. In addition, they are unable to distinguish between the living things and non-living things. At times, they may ask questions concerning the sun, moon, trees and other things since they expect them to behave like human beings. Due to lack of understanding of reality, the children may blame paths they follow if they fall over. These children also tend to discover between good and bad. For instance, most of them may be notorious and may experiment different things expecting a condemnation if they are bad or assume if they are good. Parents should guide their children appropriately on what is good and what is bad at two years old (Child and Adolescent Health Service, 2012). However, development of understanding and intelligence may have negative effects. For instance, a child may start experimenting various things which may be harmful and dangerous such as catch a burning flame. In addition, the child may use harmful objects or go to dangerous place due to his or ambition to understand the environment and objects. Language development is also evidenced in the biological development of two years old children. Language development at age of 2 has been found to be rapid and should be handled carefully. These children often use their words in the process of communication, although they may be senseless to others. As the child gets his or her message across, the more he or she will tend to communicate. According to Robledo (2014), a two years child will have difficulties in decision making on the use of “I, you or me”. The child is also able to answer questions asked rather than repeating the question. As a language development process, children tend to name things around them. They name dogs, cats, ball, drink, etc. It is important for parents or other people around the child to use less powerful and commanding words like “no or don’t” that may limit the ability of the child. In addition, it is advisable not to use high pitch voice when talking to the child. Apart from talking skills, the child also develops various listening skills. Two years old children tend to follow instructions. For instance, these children can name pictures and other things when asked (FamilyEducation, 2014). Children at two years also tend to put words in short sentences when communicating and use them in letting others know what they want. Parents and other people around these children should help them to develop their language by giving them attention and putting them through various tests that enhance their language development (Raising Children Network, 2014). Emotional and social development is a predominant part of child development at the age of 2. Socialization is the process through which children gain the desired values, beliefs and behaviors in their society. An emotion is a state of feeling resulting from cognitive evaluations and physiological responses that stimulate action. At the age of two years, a child may develop emotions such as embarrassment, guilt, envy, pride and shame. These emotions develop as the child begins to gain self-recognition that is associated with self-conscious emotions. The child tends to develop relationships with other people, and mostly with those close to them. They also tend to trust some people and reject others. For example, the child may reject greetings or questions from a stranger and run to his or her parent. In addition, the child spends a lot of time playing with other children of his or her age playing or doing other things (BabyCenter, 2014). A two-year-old child may also show her love and trust by hugging the best friend while playing with other children. The child can recognize the feelings as emotions are displayed by other people. For example, when one is angry with something the child is doing, he or she will stop doing it immediately. In addition, the child may try to help another child who is hurt while playing or who is sad. The child has also developed more understanding and application of language related to emotions. The child may recognize her feelings or feelings of another and may say “dad happy now." Two years old children find it difficult to control their feelings and emotions. For instance, these children openly laugh when they are happy or showing signs of happiness and cry when angered. As a social aspect, a two-year-old child looks for comfort and help from the adults during conflicts or dangers. For instance, when the child gets hurt when playing or be hurt by another child, he or she runs to the parent or a teacher to report (BabyCenter, 2014). There are positive and negative effects of competencies in behavioral, biological and social development in 2 years old children. First, children with good biological development such as language development can communicate effectively with other people and enhances his or her self-esteem, as well as courage. However, children with poor language development are unable to communicate effectively and may get emotional when people lack to recognize his or her message. Secondly, good social and emotional development will enable children to interact freely with other people in the future. They may be good in addressing people and telling stories. On the other hand, poor development in social and emotional aspects of a child may result to poor interaction and socializing skills and may tend to have a lonely life (BabyCenter, 2014). Lastly, behavioral development also have limitations in different ways. Children tend to undertake many activities of which some are dangerous and harmful to them. For example, children may tend to cook thus being exposed to the risk of fire burns especially in absence of a parent or another person. In conclusion, in order to bring up children appropriately, parents and guardians should be careful with various behaviors displayed by their children especially at the age of two years. Parents should understand that children are ambitious to understand various things around them thus they demand explanations. In addition, these children have feelings, and emotions; thus parents should be careful while handling their children’s emotions. Lastly, parents should encourage their children in developing skills such as playing, singing, bathing, running, etc. Support from the adults makes children feel loved and cared (CDC, 2014). References BabyCenter (2014). Developmental milestone: Self-care at age 2. Retrieved from http://www.babycenter.com/0_developmental-milestone-self-care-at-age-2_63974.bc CDC (2014). Positive Parenting Tips for Healthy Child Development. CDC. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/pdfs/toddlers1-2.pdf CDC (2014). Toddlers (2-3 years of age). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/toddlers2.html Child and Adolescent Health Service (2012). Child Development 2-3 years. Government of Western Australia. Retrieved from http://www.health.wa.gov.au/docreg/Education/Population/Child_Health/Growth_and_Development/HP3423_child_dev2-3years.pdf FamilyEducation (2014). The Terrible Twos: A Part of Emotional Development. Retrieved from http://life.familyeducation.com/emotional-development/toddler/53234.html Raising Children Network (2014). Social and emotional growth: 2-3 years. Retrieved from http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/social_and_emotional_growth_from_age_2_to_3_pbs.html Robledo J. (2014). Developmental milestone: Talking. Retrieved from http://www.babycenter.com/0_developmental-milestone-talking_63964.bc Read More