Motor skills
A two year old child requires assistance in all aspects. These include body movement and language development. Body movement all any kind of movement that the child learns is referred to as motor skills. As indicated, motor skills refer to movement of muscles and this may be categorized as either gross or fine motor skills.
Gross motors skills in a two year old child generally refers to the general movement of body muscles, while fine motor skills are masterly skills required by a child in aspect such as writing or drawing objects using a pen. According to Charlesworth (2010), the following two activities can be used by the child’s parent to improve the child’s motor skills.
Games
Games have continually been used to engage two year olds in coordinated movement. Soft games such as touching body parts can help a child learn how to balance body parts. For example, a child may learn how to stand on one leg. Another aspect of coordinating body movement in a child is through closing one eye, touching the nose and such.
A two year child can also be introduced into games that require jumping and hopping. In general, games help a child to develop other important skills. For example, a scrabble game can help children start learning about animals, animal names and language comprehension.
Drawing
By using drawing activities, a two year old child learns the skills of using hands and eyes in a well coordinated manner. For example, a parent can let the child use tracing lines to draw an object.
The perfection of this activity by the child shows that the child-eye coordination is developing. Nonetheless, this skill is also critical in helping a child learn how to read. This is possible, since the child can observe and comprehend the meaning of a shape and trace the pen along the lines to draw a shape.
Language development
Providing a two year old with language development skills is essential in growth and development of a child. The following activities can be used in fostering language development skills in a two year old child.
Puzzles
A parent can construct puzzles or buy puzzles with bright colors. Bright colors are attractive to young children, and conversing with them while working on puzzles can be playful. For example, a parent can ask a few questions that are direct and expect the child to answer. However, such questions should be based on the puzzle colors, design and shapes.
A puzzle is also essential in promoting fine motor skills in the child, since a lot of coordination between the hand and the eyes is involved. In this process, children are able to name shapes of animals and object in the puzzle and even tell imaginary stories on the same.
Matching games
Matching games activities involves the use of pictures and objects that are brightly colored. Nonetheless, such matching games should be simple and easy to understand by children. Most importantly, the use of matching games should also involve the parent in instructing the child in various tasks on the matching game. In this process, fine motor skills are also developed as the parent assists the child in hand and eye coordination tasks. In the process, children also develop cognitive skills by narrating and recalling the last time they saw such pictures or objects.
References
Charlesworth, R. (2010). Understanding child development. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Chesebrough, E. (2004). A blueprint for the promotion of pro-social behavior in early childhood. New York, NY: Springer.