By the age of two, the child is already developing some psychomotor and cognitive skills. In principle, it is already beginning to outgrow the baby stage, but is still small.
In order to help them develop their skills and to accompany them in their discovery of the world, the choice of toys at that age is essential. Indeed, parents must adapt their child's activities and games to their age.
To find out which toys are suitable for a two-year-old, read on.
Why is it important to adapt games to the age of the child?
From a child psychiatry perspectiveThe child evolves with his or her games, which are therefore the witness of his or her evolution. Indeed, the same game is often used differently depending on the child's age. It is a question of support that the child himself adapts according to its progression over time.
Take the example of a car game, during the first few months, the child usually uses it just to drive it. However, from the age of two, he or she will feel the need to provide real adventures to his toy, which he perceives as a real character.
According to child psychiatrists, the child's psychological development is characterised by by the rise of representative intelligence (or the ability to develop mental images of the objects they want). It is therefore a question of the advent of symbolic thinking.
What kind of early learning games should I offer my two-year-old?
From the age of two, a certain type of learning toy according to the the developmental status of her child. These include :
- early-learning drawing games;
- illustrated books with pictures,
- puzzles ;
- role-playing, imitation and 'pretending';
- games of china;
- building sets ;
- musical learning toysetc.
Understand the mechanisms of child development to better adapt early learning games
Firstly, at this age, the child begins to be interested in drawing. Indeed, a two-year-old child will increasingly enjoy drawing. In his world, this consists of representations, through drawing, of objects, situations or characters which he wants to create.
At this age, they will also enjoy anything with pictures, such as picture books. The parent can therefore tell him/her the following stories images or illustrations on the pages of the book. Therefore, the child develops pleasure in puzzle games and all types of games where it is possible toassociate images with others.
The age of two is also the ideal time for symbolic games, i.e. pretend games, in which the child imagines stories about policemen, firemen, merchants, etc, the tea party games.
Certain types of early learning games will help the child to release certain emotions. Indeed, when a child of this age fights with his or her doll or stuffed toy, it releases him from an unpleasant emotion that happened to him.
Is the age of two ideal for creative play?
As previously explained, the age of two years is a transition period in a child's life.
Thus, he will often feel the need to assert and express his personality. Nothing is more appropriate for this that creative games.
Indeed, creative games such as modelling clay, salt dough, painting or drawing will allow the child to express his personality and to let your imagination run wild.
Parents should therefore think about providing them with creative materials and games to give free rein to their artistic talents. Moreover, this will also help to avoid seeing their child scribbling on walls.
