Does your 2 year old have a very short attention span? I have been trying lately to teach my daughter the alphabet and some colors and numbers...she does not want to sit still for even 5 minutes...I sing and she will sing with me and then tell me to stop so she can sing by herself! We sit down to read stories and she wants to read...not let me! She is smart and she will picture read with me, but that is about all! My cousin said her daughter did not really get into learning and all until she was 3...it was like she was a bit more mature by 3...her daughter was not potty trained until 3...my daughter is 2 and is almost potty trained...guess that just goes to show that all children develop at their own stages....but this other 2 year ols I know can aolor much better than my 2 year old...should I be concerned? Or just realize that she is 2 and she is normal? Someone said oh my she may be adhd...I am like puhleeze!!! she is 2! BUT then I got to thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Attention Span
- Thread starter tonya
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I don't know of any 2 year old that likes to sit still for more than ONE minute, let alone FIVE
. At that age their learning should be more play-learning (like singing, rhyming jingles) than sit-down-with-me-and-practice-our-letter-sounds. Go ahead and let her picture-read! Picture-reading is a great beginning to text-reading. What, after all, is text-reading if not a more compact form of picture-reading? It sounds to me like your daughter's doing fine, really! She obviously has a love for learning and that is what is most important right now, so don't discourage her from doing things the way she enjoys doing things. So what if she doesn't do things quite as well as the next kid. I'm telling you, you will go insane with worry if you make it a practice to compare your kid's skills with the skills of everyone else's kid.
. At that age their learning should be more play-learning (like singing, rhyming jingles) than sit-down-with-me-and-practice-our-letter-sounds. Go ahead and let her picture-read! Picture-reading is a great beginning to text-reading. What, after all, is text-reading if not a more compact form of picture-reading? It sounds to me like your daughter's doing fine, really! She obviously has a love for learning and that is what is most important right now, so don't discourage her from doing things the way she enjoys doing things. So what if she doesn't do things quite as well as the next kid. I'm telling you, you will go insane with worry if you make it a practice to compare your kid's skills with the skills of everyone else's kid.
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andiesmama
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My daughter turned 2 in June (I'm a first time mommy, too!)....she doesn't want to sit still, either!! Well, at least when I want her to, know what I mean??tonya said:
What you said about the singing thing....Andie does that, too! We'll be listening to her CDs in the car, I'll start to sing along, and she says "No mommy sing!"....I mean, I know I don't have a great voice, but hey now!! And sometimes when we're reading together, like at naptime or bedtime, she'll take the book from me and "read" it to me....but just showing me the pictures.And I'm jealous of you....Andie's nowhere NEAR potty-trained!! So, yay for you! Sounds to me like you have a normal & happy 2 year old!!
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BeanMak
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Deep breaths, Tonya!! She sounds perfectly normal!! one way to play alphabet is to get the letter magnets for the fridge. Let her play with those while you are cooking. She will get to know the shapes of letters just by exposure. Read to her and point out the words as you go along. That, more than her being able to recite the alphabet will help with reading.
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HeatherJay
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Yes, yes, yes to all the other advice. And please don't worry about her coloring outside the lines. Encourage her creativity. She's doing what she thinks is beautiful. Being an art major and involved in art for many of my younger years, let me tell ya, once she becomes confined by those lines it will be quite a bit harder for her to break out of them again when she gets older. Great artists are fearless, and many children become subconsciously 'afraid' of their creativity at a pretty young age. Even if she scribbles all over the page and completely ignores the lines on the page, or if she draws a bunch of squiggles with one leg and four eyes and calls it a horse, tell her how beautiful her horse is...and how creative and imaginative she is to have drawn such a marvelous creation. LOL, well, maybe that's a tad overboard, but you get the message. And, feel free to ignore the crazy artist rant, lol...but yes, I think she's perfectly normal and I don't think you have to worry a bit about her being 'behind' anyone else's child. 
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I taught 2 and 3 year old Sunday School for a few years, so I know about those short attention spans. We had a Bible story each week, and some weeks it was hard enough to get them to sit still for the whole (short) story, let alone pay attention and get something out of it. But, even when it seems like they aren't paying attention, they can surprise you. Eventually even the kids we thought were just sitting there off in their own little worlds during song time would one day prove that they knew the motions and words to the songs. And when we'd have a series of stories about one main character, eventually most of the kids would be able to tell you that the little cutout was of David.
Also, the 2 year olds generally started out in our class not coloring in the lines at all. I think at that point they are paying more attention to the feel of the crayon in their hand, how much pressure to put and how to move it, that they aren't really paying attention to the marks that actually end up on the paper. But eventually they get the hang of that and when they see you or the other kids coloring in the lines or trying to draw something specific, they get interested in trying that too. It may not seem like much progress happens from day to day, but once your child reaches age 3 I'm sure you'll look back and be amazed at all that she has accomplished.
We had a Bible story each week, and some weeks it was hard enough to get them to sit still for the whole (short) story, let alone pay attention and get something out of it. But, even when it seems like they aren't paying attention, they can surprise you. Eventually even the kids we thought were just sitting there off in their own little worlds during song time would one day prove that they knew the motions and words to the songs. And when we'd have a series of stories about one main character, eventually most of the kids would be able to tell you that the little cutout was of David.Also, the 2 year olds generally started out in our class not coloring in the lines at all. I think at that point they are paying more attention to the feel of the crayon in their hand, how much pressure to put and how to move it, that they aren't really paying attention to the marks that actually end up on the paper. But eventually they get the hang of that and when they see you or the other kids coloring in the lines or trying to draw something specific, they get interested in trying that too. It may not seem like much progress happens from day to day, but once your child reaches age 3 I'm sure you'll look back and be amazed at all that she has accomplished.
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alaskamolly
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As far as potty-training goes and it's relationship to development, it is my opinion that most late-potty-training has nothing to do with a child's development whatsoever. It's simply indicates the age that the parent got serious about potty-training! 
It's at least a week of nasty wet everywhere, and so most parents get faint-hearted, understandably, and quit halfway through, thinking mistakenly that "it isn't working," when in fact, it's working just fine. It's just take a little time for a child, that WE TRAINED TO PEE IN HIS PANTS (heehee!), to learn to go to the bathroom in an entirely different location.
My troops are all trained right before or right when they hit age 2, simply because a wiser older mother clued me into the fact that it's simply a matter of adjusting habits, having nothing to do with anything 'deeper.' And so, of course I make it fun and exciting (and give reward the first couple days, and buy new 'big girl/big boy' pants for the new little big boy/girl, but...it's not a matter of whether they want to or not. It's simply a matter of diapers no longer existing!
I think when parents wait till the child is 3 or 4, the child then feels an emotional attachment to his/her diaper, and also doesn't like change, and also realizes he/she has a bit of pull in the situation--"I don't want to." If you get them before they hit the preschool stage, they don't even realize they have a decision! They just figure "Hey, Mom said we're out of diapers and besides, we don't wear them anymore: I get to wear these cool cloth underwears now... and by golly, they sure get itchy when I urinate in them!"
That, of course, is only my opinion, nothing more! *grin*
But as for your 2 year old, sounds like a 2 year old to me!
The most important things to teach a 2 year old is that they are SAFE, LOVED, and ENJOYED. They also need to learn simple obedience (to obey simple commands right away), and how to work.
Lots of work done side-by-side with Momma (like folding washcloths, etc...) forms great work habits into them, which later translate into good educational work habits too! Work times with mom serve as a great time for singing Bible memory songs and talking about important things like, say, "Boy, I just love that Daddy! He is such a good Daddy, isn't he? And did you know that Daddy loves God? He obeys God too!" or, perhaps, "Aren't we so glad that we have Jesus to take care of us? He is just so good!" The time working together also teaches them that mom loves them, likes to be around them, and needs their help. For a 2 year old, life doesn't get much better than that!
Love,
Molly
It's at least a week of nasty wet everywhere, and so most parents get faint-hearted, understandably, and quit halfway through, thinking mistakenly that "it isn't working," when in fact, it's working just fine. It's just take a little time for a child, that WE TRAINED TO PEE IN HIS PANTS (heehee!), to learn to go to the bathroom in an entirely different location.
My troops are all trained right before or right when they hit age 2, simply because a wiser older mother clued me into the fact that it's simply a matter of adjusting habits, having nothing to do with anything 'deeper.' And so, of course I make it fun and exciting (and give reward the first couple days, and buy new 'big girl/big boy' pants for the new little big boy/girl, but...it's not a matter of whether they want to or not. It's simply a matter of diapers no longer existing!
I think when parents wait till the child is 3 or 4, the child then feels an emotional attachment to his/her diaper, and also doesn't like change, and also realizes he/she has a bit of pull in the situation--"I don't want to." If you get them before they hit the preschool stage, they don't even realize they have a decision!
They just figure "Hey, Mom said we're out of diapers and besides, we don't wear them anymore: I get to wear these cool cloth underwears now... and by golly, they sure get itchy when I urinate in them!" That, of course, is only my opinion, nothing more! *grin*
But as for your 2 year old, sounds like a 2 year old to me!
The most important things to teach a 2 year old is that they are SAFE, LOVED, and ENJOYED. They also need to learn simple obedience (to obey simple commands right away), and how to work.
Lots of work done side-by-side with Momma (like folding washcloths, etc...) forms great work habits into them, which later translate into good educational work habits too!
Work times with mom serve as a great time for singing Bible memory songs and talking about important things like, say, "Boy, I just love that Daddy! He is such a good Daddy, isn't he? And did you know that Daddy loves God? He obeys God too!" or, perhaps, "Aren't we so glad that we have Jesus to take care of us? He is just so good!" The time working together also teaches them that mom loves them, likes to be around them, and needs their help. For a 2 year old, life doesn't get much better than that! Love,
Molly
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Katydid
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I agree with all the others. By the way, at 2 it is always good to give them just plain white paper rather than coloring sheets, unless the sheets are something they really want. You want her to develop her own style and confidence before expecting her to stay inside the lines. How much more creative is it for her to have fun and let loose than to make bambi look like the perfect little deer. OK enough on that rant. Your child sounds perfectly normal. And, if she has been ahead or on time for every other milestone then missing one doesn't mean a delay. Now see for example, my son is 3 he has missed every major milestone by anywhere from 2 to 6 months and the older they get the further behind they get, so I need to get him checked after the holidays, but because he has missed them, I got the lecture of "oh missing one milestone doesn't constitute a problem, now if they miss numerous ones, then you MAY have a problem". See, even with him missing numerous milestones, that still doesn't mean that there IS a problem just that there MAY be a bigger problem. I look and your two year old is ahead of my three year old. I wouldn't worry at all. I would enjoy the time you are in and worry only if things get drastically worse, which in your case I HIGHLY doubt they will.
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