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Your 30-month-old: Learning language

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IN THIS ARTICLE

Your 2-year-old now

Some of the things preschoolers say are quite charming and unintentionally funny. They often blend two words to come up with a creative new one: prettyful, wonderfulous. They also mishear, mispronounce, and misremember words, inadvertently creating new ones that sometimes stick around a family for years: "ungabrella" for "umbrella," or "tummy button."

Resist the urge to laugh at your child's malapropisms and mistakes. They're wonderful evidence that she is working on mastering speech. Rather than correcting such errors, you might echo back what your child said in the right way but without commenting on the difference. Then go immediately over to a special notebook you keep for these immortal sayings and write them down so you never forget!

Your life now

It can be tough to hang back when your child is struggling. A parent's natural impulse is to swoop in and save the day. But a little bit of adversity is good for your preschooler.

Let her grapple with a puzzle piece that just won't fit, or try and try again to figure out how to get her sweater on. Trial and error is how kids learn – and the rush of pleasure they feel when they finally figure something out is a real confidence booster that makes them want to try other new challenges.

Do step in at the point when your child is growing so frustrated she can't focus. Even then, see if you can offer a little help without taking over the job completely and doing it for her.

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Sources

BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world. When creating and updating content, we rely on credible sources: respected health organizations, professional groups of doctors and other experts, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals. We believe you should always know the source of the information you're seeing. Learn more about our editorial and medical review policies.

AAP. 2015a. Language developmental: 2 year olds. American Academy of Pediatrics. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/toddler/Pages/Language-Development-2-Year-Olds.aspx [Accessed August 2016]

ASHA. Undated. Activities to encourage speech and language development. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/Parent-Stim-Activities.htm [Accessed August 2016]

CDC. 2014. Active listening. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/parents/essentials/communication/activelistening.html [Accessed August 2016]

Ipsa, JM, et al. 2015. Middle childhood feelings toward mothers: Predictions from maternal directiveness at the age of two and respect for autonomy currently. Social Development 24(3):541-60. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sode.12108/abstract [Accessed August 2016]

Zero to Three. 2010. Language and literacy skills from 24–36 months. National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/1289-language-and-literacy-skills-from-24-36-months [Accessed August 2016]

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