Can we have a 2 year old development thread?

[ImSoExhausted]

Wondering anyone would be interested in chatting about their two year old's development?
I have two DS, but DS1 is severely autistic and is classed as non-verbal, so the toddler stage is still pretty new to me!
I will say, DS2 is also on the ASD pathway and has been since he was 18 months old, however they're leaning towards a higher functioning ASD with lots of sensory needs.

Now that DS1 is in SEN school, we're hoping to get DS2 to more toddler groups so he can interact with more children, but it'd be nice to know where his development lies in comparison to other children?

He has very little conversational chatter, he has recently started asking 'What's this?' but it's more to himself, he never waits around for an answer!
He can count to 25
He knows all his letters and can say the alphabet forwards and backwards (literally)
He also knows it phonetically (A for Apple a-a-Apple etc)
He knows all his colours
(All of the above he's been doing since he was about 18 months old, below are things he's started doing in the last 6 months)
He can recognise a circle, square, triangle, rectangle, star
He will see a dog and say 'Dog, woof woof'. He also does this with a duck, cat and pig
He can count objects, he will glance at 4 pencils for example, and will just say, 'Four'.

Most recently he's started recognising words, we thought he was relying on the pictures at first, but we tested it by writing out the words ourselves and he could tell us what about 36 of them said.
These varied from cat to orange/purple
He can recognise Fox, Fish, Box, Bat etc, so he's not just seeing the first letter and remembering what word comes next from the phonics songs he loves so much! 😂

I'm starting to think he's a little bit ahead in someways, a bit behind in others. I'm so extremely proud of him, but wondering what we can do to help him along? He's so obsessive about things, if we bring out his drawing board he'll have us write out numbers/letters/shapes for hours on end, he's been like that since he was 15 months old.

I'm really interested in what other two year olds are like, I know some chat the ear of their parents and he's definitely not there yet!

[SinkGirl]

My twins just turned 2 this weekend.

Neither of them can talk. One has various issues (vision and neurological) and is very behind developmentally. The other is doing well in other areas, just no speech or pretend play yet. He loves building, stacking, lining things up, grouping by colour and those sorts of things.

Sounds like your son is doing very well to me

[ImSoExhausted]

@SinkGirl my DS loves lining things up as well! Can't disturb the line hahaa
He didn't walk until 21 months, he's still quite physically behind with a lot of things.
All this speech has come with such a burst, we really didn't expect it at all. He prefers to lead you by the hand than to actually speak. I'm thrilled that he's doing what he is, but he definitely lacks ways of communication.

I'm hope your twins are doing well, it must be difficult to not compare, we do it between ours and there's two years between them! It can be strangely upsetting to see how affected DS1 is by having ASD, we're so used to that being the norm, that it can be really shocking when seeing DS2 do things

[SinkGirl]

Yes, not comparing is very difficult. They are both doing very well physically (a bit too well for my liking given the climbing 😂) but I do find it very hard.

Twin 2 is being assessed for autism but already diagnosed with some brain damage and an eye disorder. Stopped playing with toys or mimicking about 6 or 7 months ago.

Twin 1 also prefers to direct my hands to communicate, but his only speech is shouting gagaga at full volume which doesn’t get us very far!

[ForeverBubblegum]

DS is almost 2 and can say a lot of words (200-300) and use short sentences (3-5 words). He doesn't really get how conversations work yet though so a lot of his speech is descriptions of what he can see, not a back and forth talking.

He knows colours and shapes, and all the number words up to 10, but doesn't get the order right. He can count 2 or 3 objects, but nothing above that. He also knows the difference between some dinosaurs, and can say long names like stegosaurus, but he is a bit dinosaur obsessed at the moment.

Sounds like your DS is quite advanced academically (if you can use that word for toddlers), DS doesn't recognise letters yet, let alone words.

[SinkGirl]

I can’t even imagine my boys being able to say hundreds of words - that must be lovely. I’d be happy with one or two words at this point!

[ImSoExhausted]

@ForeverBubblegum that's a lot of words! So your DS is way ahead with conversation but only just starting with numbers?

@SinkGirl I know exactly how you feel. I ached for DS1 to say anything. A few months ago he started mimicking some stuff we say, he has no idea what it means, but it did mean we got to hear 'I love you!' Which is quite selfish I suppose, but it was absolutely magical

[ForeverBubblegum]

SinkGirl – I'm sorry I didn’t mean to make you feel bad, kids all develop at their own rate so there’s still plenty of time. It’s good that twin 1 is communicating none verbally (directing hands etc), once they understand that communication can get them what they want (usually more biscuits in DS case), it seems to gives them an incentive to try different forms. Does he do gestures like waving? Or any signs?

ImSoExhausted - I’m always amazed by little ones like yours who seem to want to learn from such a young age. I’m sure DS would have the capacity to learn numbers, as he can memorise things well if he chooses (eg. About 30 animal-sound pairs), but just doesn’t seem that interested. He’ll occasionally do some ‘counting’ where he’ll touch each object and say a number, but after 3/4 it’s just random order. Can I ask, how much did you teach him, and how much did he start doing by himself? I’ll sometimes count thing out for him but he doesn’t tend to focuses on what I’m saying, so I mostly leave it and follow his interests.

[SinkGirl]

Oh no don’t worry - I know they’re very behind, I just think it would be lovely to hear them talk.

Twin 1 doesn’t really do any gestures or signs - he’s pointed a grand total of twice. It’s like it just hasn’t occurred to him that communication is a thing yet, although he does bring me duplo to get me to separate it when it’s stuck, or uses my hand to press tricky switches. He’s figured out a little touch screen tablet toy and sits playing the little games for ages, he just doesn’t seem to want to talk.

Twin 2 babbles constantly but it’s never deliberate, just lots of sounds.

[ImSoExhausted]

@ForeverBubblegum lots and lots of singing, '1, 2 buckle my shoe...' etc
We also watch so much YouTube, because of how obsessive he is, it's a life saver for us! He's had access to a tablet since he was about 20 months (used his brothers) he's had his own since he was 23 months. It's really helped, it's used for all the shapes, numbers, colours and nursery rhymes. He loves having the choice to change videos. Up until then, he'd demand we consistently wrote out numbers and letters, that's part of his ASD, he's extremely obsessive with a very high level of concentration!

[ImSoExhausted]

@SinkGirl I know what you mean about how lovely it would be to hear them speak. I really hope it does happen for you, although everyone acknowledges how great it is if a child speaks, they don't seem to get how great it is for the parent too. Everything DS1 says is still a shock and a joy, we never thought he'd say a word.
If you can find an interest they have, I really do recommend a tablet of some sort so they can watch YouTube. We credit it as the only reason DS1 has any language, we wouldn't have been able to keep up the repetition that he needed to learn to speak, but he could replay the same video about shapes over and over again.

He also loved watching them for the ABC's and nursery rhymes. Hearing him sing 'Rain rain go away' when he was 3 remains one of my proudest moments

[Silversun83]

I think the important thing to remember at this age is that there is such a range in what's normal and that the majority do all level out a few years down the line. Sounds as though your DS is doing very well! Don't forget that on average boys tend to be a bit slower with language.

DD is 2 years 3 months and has always been very verbal.. She could say 100 words by the time she was about 16 months and has always loved singing. You can now pretty much have a normal (well as normal as can be with a toddler!) conversation with her and she speaks in sentences of up to about 8 words. She knows pretty much every nursery rhyme (though doesn't always get all the words right!). She also has an amazing memory (I read something the other day sayinv that children this age often have excellent memories because their brain isn't filled with that much yet which makes total sense!).

She knows her shapes and colours (though often gets black and white mixed up, weirdly!).

She can recite numbers up to 10 and knows how many objects there are instinctively if there are one or two. She is just starting to properly count things.. can do so up to about six, then after that she just gets carried away and goes "7,8,9,10!" (Often there are 10 things ).

In the past few weeks I've noticed her physical development coming on a lot.. can climb up all sorts of climbing frames by herself and use rope ladders, etc.

She is also going through quite a bad tantrum phase.. I think it's about exerting her independence as everything is a battle.. also wants to do everything herself. Oh and six months ago she got a baby brother which I think is still affecting her emotionally.

[Silversun83]

Sorry if that first bit sounded at all flippant.. @sinkgirl even though they are still young, it must be so hard not knowing how things will pan out. It sounds as though they are very engaged with the things they enjoy doing

[welshweasel]

They are all so different at this age! My DS is 2.5 and has excellent speech and vocabulary, holding proper conversations. His counting is hit and miss, sometimes can count to 20 but often misses out numbers. He’s good with colours and shapes. Don’t think he can recognise any letters/numbers/words but I haven’t actively tried with him! His physical development has always been slower, he has only just learnt to jump and is still unsteady on stairs and is v clumsy. His fine motor skills are very good though.

I find that he goes through stages where he doesn’t seem to progress much in any area then all of a sudden he starts doing loads of new things at once.