18 months Your baby will be able to ask for food, drinks, and toys. She may tell you she wants to go to the potty, but can’t wait so has frequent accidents. She will carry out several simple requests and begin to understand more complex ones, such as, “Please get your hairbrush from the bathroom.” She may also grab your arm or use other gestures to get your attention. Her vocabulary may consist of about 30 words.
2 years Your child’s vocabulary of names and objects will increase rapidly, and she will describe and identify familiar answers. She will obey complicated orders and find a toy that she played with before. She will talk nonstop and ask occasional questions.
Shortly after this, she will know who she is and say her own name. She’ll try to build houses and castles with blocks, and repeat new words when encouraged. She’ll begin to pit her will against yours and may become rather negative – saying “no” fairly often and not always going along with your wishes. She may know the difference between one and several, but she has little idea of the magnitude of numbers and so anything more than one may be “lots.”
2½ – 3 years Your child will start to add detail to broad concepts, as in “A horse has a long tail,” and be able to say draw horizontal and vertical lines. She’ll be able to say one or nursery rhymes and find them in her book, and she’ll know some colors. She will also ask “why?” and say “won’t” and “can’t.” She may make an attempt to copy a circle that you have drawn for her, but probably won’t be able to complete it. Your child will now enjoy helping with household tasks. She will begin to grasp the concept of numbers and may be able to count to three. A boy will have noticed that his genitals stick out from his body, in contrast to those of little girls he has seen.
Your child can understand prepositions, such as “in,” ”on,” “under,” “behind,” and “after.” At round three years old, she’ll be able to form more complex sentences and her vocabulary may consist of 200-300 words. This, together with her ever-increasing curiosity, will lead her to ask incessant questions. She can distinguish between now and then and will also refer to the past. She knows her own gender. She’ll become more sociable and like to play with others.
