A two-year-old child

• Communicates using a combination of gestures, looking, sounds and words
  • Starts to take turns in conversations
• Able to attend to activity of own choosing
• Understands that events are made up of a series of steps in sequence e.g. wash hands, sit at table, eat, get down
• Demonstrates more than one action in pretend play e.g. feeds doll then puts doll to bed
• Understands that words can stand for pictures and toys of real objects
• Understands some long and complicated sentences
• Able to carry out instructions containing two key words, without relying on the speaker’s gestures, for example, to figure out the meaning e.g. ‘Put teddy on the table’
• Starts to combine two or three words into short phrases e.g. ‘Mummy here’, ‘Teddy jump here’
• Uses the same word or phrase for different reasons e.g. ‘Daddy drink’ might mean, ‘That’s daddy’s drink’, ‘Daddy, I want your drink’ or ‘Daddy’s drinking’.
• Starts to ask questions
• Starts to say ‘No’ and ‘Not’
• Starts to talk about past events and possibly things that might happen in the future.