Physical Development
At the age of two, the children continue to grow physically. But these children still have a long way to go in order to be as developed as adults. The coordination of a 2-year old’s body is improving. At this age, the child can usually run and jump without failing. He can also play with balls. He can pick up a ball by bending at the waist, kick it, or throw it without failing. For fine motor development, two-year-old children are rapidly developing finger dexterity and control. They can use scissors properly, turn the pages of a book one at a time, string large beads and do many other fine motor activities. 
By the age of three, children can catch balls with their arms. But eventually, they can catch balls with their hands. Their leg coordination and balancing skills also improve. They can balance on one foot, ride tricycles, and hop on one foot. The fine motor skills of three-year-old children continue to develop. Cutting skills become more refined. They can cut paper but cannot cut along a line. They can also draw simple shapes and manipulate blocks and puzzles.
Self-help Skills
Two-year-old children can do many self-help skills with little help. At first, they can undress themselves. They can remove their shirts, pants, shoes, and socks. Then they can dress themselves. They can button their shirts, close snaps, and put on their socks. At this age, they can drink from a glass, although this often happens with spills. They can also drink using a straw. By the age of three, children become more self-sufficient. They become better at dressing themselves. However, they have trouble telling the front from the back of the clothing. At snack time, these three-year-old children enjoy helping. They can spread butter or jelly on bread. They can also pour liquid from a small pitcher.
Intellectual Development
The intellectual development of two-year old children includes language comprehension skills, expressive language skills, and math readiness skills. These areas reflect the intelligence of children.
Expressive Language Skills
Expressive language is the ability to produce language forms. This is a tool used to express a person’s thoughts to others. This quickly develops for most two-year-old children. Their vocabulary is composed of 50-200 words. Like other aspects of development, it follows a sequence. At first, only two words may be used. For example, “Baby cry.” After this, children can put three words together. “See my toy.” By 27-30 months, children may begin to use prepositions, such as “toys in the box.” By the third birthday, the children’s ability to produce language continues to increase. By now, they may also be able to use more than 900 words. They can also make sentences of four to five words. During this stage, children start to use question words like why, when and how.
Language Comprehension Skills
Language comprehension is a person’s understanding of language. This form of language is more advanced than expressive language skills. This form of language grows quickly in two-year old children. They can understand and answer routine questions. They can also provide correct answers to yes/no questions. They can also follow two-step directions. For instance: “Get your toys and keep them in your toy box.” Understanding the meaning of words can be observed among two-year old children. They can tell the difference between soft and hard, big and small, short and long. Understanding of language continues to grow in three-year old children. They can follow three-step directions. For example, “Go to the bathroom, wash your feet, and dry them with a towel.” This can provide answers to questions that begin with who, what, and how. They also understand ideas such as around, in front of, at the back of, and next to.
Math Readiness Skills
Two-year old children can understand the concept of Math. Math skills develop as children interact with others. For example, a child can give you just one of something if you ask. They can also understand the concept of sizes and shapes. At the age of three, they start to understand the concept of more, less, full. empty, one, many,etc. Counting also begins at this stage. They may be able to recite numbers in order higher than five but they still are not able to count that number of objects.
Social-Emotional Development
At the age of two, children like instant gratification and find it difficult to wait. They also tend to show many negative attitudes. With these qualities, patience is a very important quality of the people around the children of this age. But as they reach their third birthday, they start to grow out of the temper tantrums. These children become happy and cooperative. They also start to show acceptable ways of expressing their emotions.
Social Development
At the age of two, children tend to be more interested in adults. So they act out as adults as they play, such as cooking, talking on the phone, or driving a car. They are also possessive. They do not want to share. But in spite of their negativism and possessiveness, they are very affectionate. They often hug and kiss their parents and the other people around them. They depend so much on love and care from adults. At the age of three, they start to learn ways of showing concern for others. They also learn positive ways to get attention from others. Moreover, they can adjust to new people more easily than two-year olds. They begin to play with other children although their play is not truly organized. They are not as possessive as two-year olds. They will share with others, but this is limited to only one or two friends. He may invite a child to play with him but to another child, he may say, “You cannot play with us.” They also begin to learn gender roles but their concepts are not as clearly defined. Nevertheless, these are important parts of learning. They start to realize that boys and girls have physical differences. With proper role models, they begin to learn how to treat members of the opposite sex with respect.
Emotional Development
Being able to get what they want quickly is important to two-year old children. They may have temper tantrums if they do not get their way. They may cry, stamp, kick and scream. They can easily get frustrated and angry. Trying to do a task that is too hard for them may cause their anger. Not being allowed to have or do something they like may also cause their anger. However, love and care are shown by these children. In return, they need to receive love and care. They need to know that people around them still care for them even if they get angry. At this age, fears are common. They are afraid of being hurt or harmed. Many of their fears have something to do with their imagination. They may be afraid of a monster from a story. A bad dream may also frighten them because they think the characters are real. Adults need to comfort them when they are afraid. At the age of three, children have visible emotions. They get excited, angry, or discouraged; but they realize that there are appropriate ways to express these emotions. They know that adults do not approve of such actions as temper tantrums. And they are eager to act in ways that will please others so they try to control their strong feelings. They become angry when things do not go their way, but they do not cry, scream, or stamp as when they were two years old. They are also affectionate, but tend to seek attention in return. They try to follow or help an adult in an effort to get attention or approval. Three-year old children are quite fearful of imagined dangers, so they are afraid of the dark. They are also fearful of pain, so they are scared that a dog might bite them or they will be hurt if they are brought to a doctor or dentist.
