At two years old, children begin to make great strides both linguistically and in terms of spatial thinking. And it is very important to help the baby with this.
How to strengthen your child's spatial thinking
At two years old, children discover new concepts every day, and their vocabulary is rapidly enriched. Words like “there”, “above”, “below” are a big leap forward because they show that the child understands the relationship between things in space. And always at this stage, children also begin to formulate the first sentences, consisting of two or three words.
It is at the age of two that an understanding of space begins to form. The child begins to understand where people and objects around him are in relation to him.
You can see his progress in understanding the words he hears and in his growing ability to follow directions such as "fetch me the ball from the corner", "look under the bed."
1. Explain where the people he knows are when they are not with him; for example: "father is now in his office", "grandmother lives far away."
2. Give him simple instructions with directions. For example: “put the toy on the chair”, “now put it under the bed”, “bring it here”.
3. Ask your toddler simple questions that require him to think about location. For example: "Where do the birds live?", "Where are the planes flying?", "Where is the door?"
Don't always expect the right answer, this is not a test or exam, but questions to be asked during your daily conversations.
How to help your child build more complex sentences
At two years old, the child's vocabulary becomes richer, he learns from 50 to 75 words. He also begins to try to tie them together to build his first sentences of two or three words, for example, "I want milk."
If your child uses less than 20 words, it may be a good idea to talk to a pediatrician to check if he or she has hearing problems.
The first sentences of two or three words are not very clearly formulated and go straight to the point: "come to me", "dad is bad." the child also begins to repeat words that he often hears at home, for example, "goodbye", "good morning."
What should be done to encourage him to build more complex sentences?
1. Answer his "dry" phrases with clearly formulated, descriptive and detailed phrases: "Do you want your mom to help you put on red socks?", "Yes, dad is playing ball with Nastya."
2. Do not correct his grammatical mistakes, but simply repeat the sentence correctly until he himself repeats after you as it should.
3. Actively read a lot of books, that is, ask him questions about what he sees on the page and what, in his opinion, will happen next
And the most important thing is to talk to your child as much as possible during the day.
