2 to 2 1/2 Year Educational Goals

Hard to believe my little baby is now 2! She's not much of a baby anymore. Her face is losing that babyish roundness, her legs are longer and straighter, and she's shooting up in height. And her behavior is also getting a lot less babyish. She's really becoming more of a little kid rather than a baby.

Life Skills

Eating

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals she was working on for eating:

• Drinks from cup held to lips

• Reaches for and picks up cup

• Returns cup to table

• Drinks from a straw

• Feeds self with spoon

• Feeds self with fork

• Transfers materials with a spoon

• Uses utensils to eat

• Cuts with knife

• Opens packages, plastic wrappers and containers

• Rinses fresh fruits or vegetables

• Gets drink from faucet

• Dips food in liquid or sauces

In the past few months, she abruptly started drinking from sippy cups and straw cups. She still clearly prefers bottles, but I'm working on transitioning her. My current goal is to get myself into the habit of only letting her drink from a bottle for naps and bedtime. She's still working on an open cup, she's more likely to spill everywhere than properly drink. She's also been putting her sippy cups and bottles on the table or in the cup holder on the stroller regularly when she's done.

She hasn't made much progress with utensils in the past three months. She's trying to use them but doesn't have the coordination to do so very well, and usually resorts to finger-feeding. She's also still working on using a knife to cut bananas. 

Recently her Kiwico box arrived and I was being too slow unpacking it, so she opened up the box and took some toys out, but couldn't get them out of the plastic bag they were in. So, she's still working on opening containers.

I still haven't gotten around to getting her to try rinsing fruit and vegetables. She probably could do it if given the opportunity, but we haven't had a good situation for her to try.

During bathtime, she will often put a cup or bowl under the stream to fill it up and have fun pouring it, but she doesn't seem to do it to get a drink. 

She's been dipping food consistently, and I'm ready to call this skill mastered.

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the one new goal in this area:

• Spreads with knife

Recently, I was making her a peanut butter sandwich and impulsively decided to let her try to spread the peanut butter on the bread instead of doing it for her. And for a toddler's first attempt, she did pretty well. I was expecting this to be a 4 year goal, but I'm moving it to 2 years because of that.

Hygiene

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals she was working on in this area:

• Allows nose to be wiped

• Wipes own nose on own hands or random objects

• Cooperates in washing and drying face

• Cooperates in washing and drying hands

• Holds toothbrush to teeth

• Washes and dries face 

• Dries off with a towel when wet.

• Brushes/combs hair

There hasn't been much change in this area. Basically everything I said in the last update still applies. For this reason, I'm also not adding any new goals.

Toileting

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals for toileting for 21-24 months:

• Cooperates with being placed on toilet

• Only urinates in toilet

• Only defecates in toilet

• Shows awareness of toileting accidents

• Goes to toilet unprompted to urinate or defecate

• Toilets on a scheduled time with prompt

• Wipes self

• Gets toilet paper

So, we've just recently started making progress again. The turning point seems to have been her realizing that she might be able to put undies on independently - whereas self-diapering is still well beyond her abilities - which has given her a motivation to wear undies. And I've realized that she understands the difference between undies and a diaper, and will only try to hold it if she's wearing undies, which is why I wasn't seeing progress for awhile since I was following advice to alternate between diaper and undies based on whether or not she used the potty.

As for reacting to accidents, she will often ignore a pee accident, especially if she's wearing a diaper, but she's starting to show more obvious reactions to pooping herself. Her best performance so far on this goal was when she urgently signed “potty finish” after pooping her undies. But this is a work in progress still.

She hasn't been using wipes or toilet paper lately, because I lost most of the cloth wipes and stopped bothering to replace them. So, no progress on those goals so far, but she has been working on all the other goals.

I've gotten some kid-safe hourglasses and I've been using them to try to time her potty visits so she'll stay at least 5 minutes, but it's still often a fight to get her to sit still. And I'm never quite sure how much to press the issue since I don't want her associating the potty with a fight with mom - especially the times she's freely chosen to go potty. But if I can convince her to stay longer, often she will eventually go potty, so it's worth trying.

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the one new goal in the area of toileting:

• Reports if she needs to go potty

She's just starting to occasionally attempt to communicate this topic to us verbally. Specifically, she's answered negatively to “do you need to pee?” on multiple occasions, but hasn't really communicated very clearly in other contexts.

Dressing

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals for this area:

• Removes pants/shorts without fasteners

• Fastens stuff with velcro

• Unfastens stuff with velcro

• Put a carry strap for a backpack or similar thing on.

• Puts on pants/shorts with elastic waist

• Puts on shoes

• Puts on t-shirt, dress, or sweater with no fasteners

• Puts on a diaper with side flaps (not pull-up style).

• Removes on a diaper with side flaps (not pull-up style).

• Takes off front opening garments.

• Puts on mittens

• Puts on socks

She's been making a lot of progress in dressing lately. Putting on shoes is almost mastered, the only reason I'm not marking it as fully mastered is because she will often try to put her foot in backwards or sideways and isn’t yet able to self-correct this mistake (instead she just starts screaming in frustration).

As for socks, she can get her foot in them but struggles to pull them over her heels. Socks are harder than shoes for her. She hasn’t worn mittens lately because it's warm out, so that skill won't be relevant again until next winter.

As I mentioned above under toileting, she's recently developed an interest in putting on undies. She can sometimes get both feet in the correct holes, but other times she gets both legs in the same hole, or sometimes tries to put them on upside down (her foot goes in the leg hole and out the waist or out the other leg hole). She also sometimes tries to pull her undies up, but can't get them over her butt. Her performance with pants is similar, but with the added issue of not being able to get her foot all the way through her pant leg unaided.

She hasn't made much progress with shirts. With pullover shirts she's able to pull them over her head but not much else, and with front-opening shirts she can usually take them off but not put them on.

She hasn't really tried to put on or take off diapers lately. I think she's decided she'd rather focus on learning how to put on undies. Whenever she picks an undergarment for herself, it's nearly always undies rather than a diaper.

She's outgrown the velcro shoes, but she's got a new toy from Kiwico with velcro, and she seems to have no trouble doing and undoing the velcro on that toy. I think she's mastered velcro.

She's been going on more walks lately and has been trying to put her own backpack leash on, but tends to just get tangled up in it.

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goals in this area:

• Unfastens buttons

• Puts on a coat or jacket (or other front-opening garment)

• Unfastens snaps

• Fastens snaps

Apart from one possibly accidental occurrence, my child hasn’t been able to undo buttons yet, no matter how much she tries. She definitely put on a jacket independently once, but hasn't done so since.

Recently I playfully hid a book of hers in a bag that has a snap to close it. I wasn't really expecting her to be able to get it out, but held it for her so she didn't have to worry about holding up the bag while trying. Well, she did it! Based on that, I've decided to move this down to a 2 year old goal.

She also recently did up the snap on my bike helmet, and has done the snap on her own helmet too. (We recently got a bike trailer that she loves, and I think she understood my discussion with grandpa about needing to find our helmets in order to go on bike rides, because once we found them, she's been obsessed with them.)

Tool Use

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals she was working on in this area:

• Understands that medicine helps them feel better

• Turns on lights when in the dark

• Fit multiple objects efficiently into a single container

• Uses an object to affect other objects

• Pushing buttons to operate electronic devices.

Recently, we had a rough night where my kid was waking up crying every hour, and eventually started refusing milk and crying inconsolably, and we ended up giving her infant Tylenol. It took two people and she screamed and struggled the whole time. So I don't think she's figured out yet that medication helps her.

She doesn't have any light fixtures she can reach, but I recently got her a nightlight and she pretty much immediately figured out how to activate it. She's been sleeping with it ever since.

The Kiwico toy I mentioned above with velcro is a set of stuffed cloth pieces that includes six triangles and six foldable hexagons with velcro, that come in a hexagonal cloth pack. Lately she's starting to help me put them away in that pack. She's also got a box of chalk “crayons” and she's been helping put away the chalk when we're done playing with it, too. In both tasks, she struggles with aligning things and making them fit, so this is still a work in progress.

She's been banging things on her xylophone to make music, and drawing with various drawing utensils, both of which I'd consider examples of using an object to affect another. Overall, I think she's surpassed this goal.

She's been trying to push buttons, but often struggles to exert enough force. And with the buttons she can push (keyboard of the computer and the controls on the fireplace) she doesn't seem to understand how her button mashing affects anything. (TBF I don't understand the fireplace's controls either.)

2-2½ Year Goals

There's two new goals in this area:

• Demonstrates appropriate use of playground equipment

• Digs with a shovel or rake

We haven't been to the playground much recently, but now that it's getting warmer, I'm planning to go more. About a month ago I went to a playground nearby with her that we haven't gone to since last year, and she was able to climb through the tunnel independently, and also climb up the stairs and down the slide with some encouragement. So she's showing progress here.

With the spring, my parents are also starting their garden. They got my daughter a toddler-sized wheelbarrow, and she's also been digging in the dirt with her toy rake. She's not very efficient yet, but she's very enthusiastic!

Chores

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals we were working on in this area:

• Wipes tables

• Sets table - brings utensils to table

• Sets table - brings drinks

• Puts dishes away

• Keeps personal area organized

• Put clean laundry away

• Puts letter in mailbox

• Turns faucets off and on

• Rinses dirty dishes

She's wiped her high chair tray a few times, and once wiped the coffee table after I showed her how, but she's not doing this consistently yet.

I haven't been trying to get her to set tables. She does regularly bring me my drinks, but not on command. But I think the utensils goal is a bit too advanced for her, so I'm actually going to be setting it for an older age.

She's more likely to take dishes out than put them away. However, as I mentioned above, she is starting to sometimes help me put her toys away.

Next to her potty area, we have a box full of undies and diapers, and lately she's developed a game of transferring all the undergarments into a cloth bag and then back into the box. She also occasionally helps me put clothes away in her bedroom. On the other hand, she's been pulling clothes out of her “clothes that don't fit yet” basket because it's within reach of her crib, so it's a mixed bag.

We're having trouble with the heater and it's made doing dishes unpleasantly cold, especially with how much she splashes, so we haven't done dishwashing lately. We also haven't mailed any letters using the mailbox lately. 

However, we've been going to the pool a lot, and often afterwards I'll set her on the sink countertop in the change room bathroom while I get her and my hair gooped up with shampoo, and she's been fiddling with the faucets during this routine. Recently, she managed to turn the faucet on and off while I was washing my hair (my mom was watching her to prevent falls).

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goals in this area:

• Cleans floor - use small broom with help

• Cleans floor - mop small areas, clean up spills with towel

• Clears table

• Scrubs objects to clean them

I recently got her a toddler-friendly cleaning set including a broom, dustpan, mop, sponge and scrub brush. She doesn't really know how to use them yet, but she's shown some interest in my demonstrations of it's use.

Money Management

2 to 2½ Year Goals

This is a new subject area with just one new goal:

• Recognizes that money is exchanged for wants and needs

She hasn't shown an understanding of the purpose of money yet.

Motor Development

Equilibrium

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals in this area:

• Rolls a ball to another.

• Attempts to kick a ball. [while standing]

• Pulls toy behind them while walking.

• Walking up or down stairs instead of crawling.

• Goes from standing up to sitting on a chair accurately.

She's started kicking balls, but not rolling them yet. I'm marking kicking as mastered.

Grandma and grandpa got her a toddler-sized wheelbarrow, and she has tried to pull it behind her.

She'd been consistently sitting down on things when she wants to, so I'm mark that skill as mastered.

Lately she's been really working on going down stairs. She can do it consistently if she holds onto something (mom's hand, mom's leg, a railing, etc), and is starting to be able to do it independently by bum-shuffling or crawling backwards. She still prefers to crawl upstairs instead of walking, but she's stepped up a few times while remaining standing.

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goals in this area:

• Demonstrate spatial awareness in physical activity or movement.

• Descending stairs independently.

The spatial awareness one is mostly about navigating obstacles. She's been getting better at this, but it's still a work in progress. She's able to go around obstacles, and sometimes able to step over them, but still sometimes trips on things.

As for descending stairs independently, she's been working on this for awhile but I'd lumped it in with other goals. But I've decided it's worth focusing on separately, because she's really been trying to master this lately.

Hand Control

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals she was working on in this area:

• Pokes with index finger.

• Tries to imitate scribbling.

• Building a tower of three small blocks.

• Putting rings on a stick.

• Turning knobs.

• Painting using whole arm movements to make strokes.

• Putting shapes into a shape sorter without assistance.

• Flipping switches.

• Builds structures with interlocking pieces.

She's been getting better at poking at touchscreens, but she still struggles sometimes.

She's been scribbling quite a bit. We've recently gotten sidewalk chalk and we've been drawing on the sidewalk, which she finds lots of fun. I write hiragana and she scribbles over my writing. This one is pretty much mastered, I'd say.

She's mastered the slide & stack puzzle I mentioned last time. However, she got a beading set in her most recent Kiwico box, and it seems like an engaging challenge for her. So that's still in progress.

She's turned knobs a few times, but can't do it consistently yet.

I haven't gotten her to paint yet, so she's had no real opportunity to demonstrate if she can do it. She also hasn’t had much opportunity to flip switches lately.

She's been very interested in shape sorters lately. She's not entirely accurate, but she’s definitely working on it.

She's been really enjoying her Duplos lately, and getting pretty good at building towers out of them. 

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goals:

• Stringing 3-4 large beads.

• Building a tower of 3-5 small blocks

• Holding a crayon with thumb and fingers.

• Opening doors independently.

Her latest Kiwico box included a beading set. She immediately got very interested in it and has been practicing stringing the beads since. It's difficult for her, but with effort and focus and sometimes a little help, she can do it.

She's been routinely building towers out of blocks, but they usually fall over before 5 blocks. 

I got her some pencils that are supposed to help kids develop a good writing grip, but she generally has a fisted grip.

Lately she's started occasionally opening the front door to the office (which involves pulling down a lever) but isn't yet opening any other doors.

Swimming

21-24 Month Goals

Here are the goals for swimming:

• Water adjustment for child to feel comfortable in and out of the water.

• Blowing bubbles and getting face wet.

• Learning front and back float with or without support.

• Developing arm and leg actions in the water.

• Introduction to appropriate water safety skills such as entry/exit.

We've been having technical issues with the water heater in our home, and as a result, we've been going to the pool to wash our hair. My daughter has been loving it. She has been doing a game with us where she “swims” between mommy and grandma (with assistance), so she's making progress on front float.

She's still pretty hesitant about back float, but will sometimes do it after watching one of us do a back float. She's kicking more in front float, but not really in back float.

She also spontaneously tried to blow bubbles for the first time recently.

Communication

Receptive Verbal

Here's the goals she was working on:

• Responds to "no" by briefly stopping activity and looking at adult.

• recognise and respond to greetings, farewells, and introductions

• Complies with simple requests such as "Give me".

• Can identify (by pointing) various body parts.

• Can comply with simple requests containing action and object (Fetch the toy, hold my hand).

• Identifies pictures of objects/animals/people in child’s environment

• Follows two part requests e.g. go to the door and open it.

• Answers yes/no questions.

• Answers questions (ex: where, what)

I've marked responding to no as mastered for English. When I say “no, no, no” while she's doing something she'll often stop, say “no, no, no” unhappily, or even throw a tantrum - before I've gotten a chance to physically prevent her.

She's been responding to greetings and farewells more, but still isn't consistent.

She has a bunch of commands that she definitely understands - stuff like “can you give me that?” “come here”, etc. She doesn't always obey, but she definitely understands them, so I'm marking both “complies with simple requests” items as mastered for English. She doesn't follow two step commands yet.

Occasionally she tries to follow along with “head, shoulders, knees and toes” (in various languages) but she's not very accurate. She hasn't pointed to or touched specific body parts on command in any other contexts that I've seen.

We've been looking at flashcards of various animals and objects to introduce her to hiragana, and she definitely recognizes some of them, because she'll grab certain cards (dog, duck, and cow) and immediately make that animal's sound. However, if I ask which one is the dog (in any language), she doesn't respond. She hasn't answered wh questions in any other contexts either.

She's been answering yes/no questions a lot lately - mostly using nodding/head shaking or “yeah” and “no”, but she also once said “hai” which is Japanese for yes.

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goals in this area:

• receive compliments and congratulations

• recognise and respond to descriptions of how something is done

• Points to common areas in house when asked question (ex: mommy go?)

• Answers/responds to questions (ex: who, which, for+for)

She called herself “good girl” once,and often smiles when I praise her, so she has some understanding of compliments and congratulations.

Sometimes I offer advice (with gestures as well as words) when she's trying to solve a puzzle, and it seems to help some of the time. 

She's just recently started pointing, but not in that context. Her uncle did say once he saw her pointing to an object Dora the Explorer was looking for on TV, though.

Once, grandpa asked her who the bowl of dog food was for and she looked at the dog. But other than that she hasn't answered any wh questions yet.

Expressive Verbal

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals she was working on in this area:

• Uses exclamations such as "uh-oh”.

• Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.

• Says "no" with meaning.

• Strings words together to communicate more complex ideas. e.g. "more juice", "Mommy go".

• Has words for most objects in environment even if they are not all recognizable or correctly pronounced.

• Responds to spoken "bye-bye" by waving.

• Waves bye-bye [spontaneously]

• learning to use subject pronouns verbally

• Use the most frequently occurring prepositions.

• translate a word from one language to another

• Use frequently occurring adjectives.

• Use the most frequently occurring prepositions.

• I can tell you what I'm going to do.

• express and respond to apology and thanks

• Subject + Verb sentences

• Verb + Object sentences

• Subject + Object sentences

• Question + Word sentences

She's said “uh oh” and “oh no” a few times so far, but I don't think it's consistent yet. No, on the other hand, she uses consistently and meaningfully, so I'm marking it as mastered. She uses it to answer yes/no questions, during tantrums, and when she's doing something she knows she's not supposed to do.

She has used 113 unique nouns and 23 unique verbs so far (not counting translations - eg cat and chat count as only one word). So she's definitely mastered nouns, and she's getting pretty good with verbs too.

She's also been making a lot of sentences lately. Her mean length of utterance was 1.48 in March and 1.45 in April, then dipped to 1.27 in May (mainly because she's been practicing new words from videos). She's made sentences up to 4 words long. So I'm going to mark this goal as mastered for English (the vast majority of her sentences are in English).

She has a lot of nouns, but there are still plenty of things in her environment that she can't name yet. She has also waved only a handful of times in total, so neither waving goal is close to mastery.

Regarding subject pronouns, she's been using I and they correctly many times, and has also used we and you a few times. So I'm marking this as mastered for English. Her only non-English use of a subject pronoun was her saying “tu est içi” during peek-a-boo, so she's still working on that for French and Dutch. (Japanese and ASL don't have pronouns that change form to indicate subject vs object.)

She's used out, here, in, down, there, that, and off, all appropriately, so I'm marking prepositions as mastered for English. She's also used içi and the signs for up and out so far.

She has on several occasions described things she's doing, but isn't consistently answering questions about what she's doing yet. She's also said thanks many times, but doesn't apologize yet.

She's made 9 Subject + Verb sentences in my records and 4 Verb + Object. She hasn't made any Subject + Object sentences or Question + Word sentences. I'm going to mark Subject + Verb as mastered, but not the other goals.

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goals in this area:

• Speak in complete sentences made up of three or more words.

• Answers yes/no questions.

• understanding the function of verb moods, recognising and knowing how to use imperatives

• identify activities and describe them (in a simple way)

• First / second person (I, me, you)

• Gender (he, she, they)

• Name some human body parts.

• Uses possessive pronouns

• Gives age upon request

• Gives first name upon request

• Subject + Verb + Object

• Subject + Verb + Adverbial

• Verb + Object + Object

• Verb + Object + Adverbial

• Question + X + Y

This sentence goal is the follow-up to the previous sentence goal. Currently, most of her sentences are two words, but as I said above she has used 3 and 4 word sentences as well.

The yes/no questions is one I thought I already had, but apparently not, so I've added it. It's already mastered in English, but not in other languages yet, though she has said はい in response to an English question.

She hasn't used imperatives yet.

Since I already have a goal for her describing her own actions, above, I'm treating the goal of describing activities here as specific to describing other people's actions. She's done this a few times, mostly talking about tickling. She describes scrubbing the fur of a cat or dog as tickling them, and has said “kitty tickle tickle tickle” and “doggy tickle” while watching family members interact with our pets multiple times. She also once summed up the plot of one of the hiragana mini books (series 1, book 8) with “they had a meal”.

She's been using I/me/you a lot, and almost always correctly, so I'm debating setting that goal to mastered already. But she still rarely uses sentences, so I'm going to wait on this. She said “mine” once, but definitely isn't using possessive pronouns consistently yet.

She hasn't used he or she yet, and has only used plural they so far.

She said “nez” once while watching Mon Bébé Sais Lire and touched her nose. But that's the only time she's named a body part so far.

I was talking half to my daughter and half to myself about her abilities and said “but then you're 2”. She replied with a bunch of gibberish ending in the word "two". I asked "how old are you?" and she didn't answer, so I said "you're two! How old are you?" and she said "two".

She's said her own name once, randomly, but isn't answering people who ask for her name yet.

Three word sentences she's made include 2 Subject + Verb + Object sentences and 1 Subject + Verb + Adverb sentence, but no Verb + Object + Object or Verb + Object + Adverb sentences yet.

Literacy

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals she was working on in this area:

• Listens with interest to stories and rhymes.

• Shows interest in illustrations in books.

She's been showing a lot more interest in books lately, both the illustrations and the stories. I'm ready to mark those as mastered.

2-2½ Year Goals

Here are the new goals for literacy now, and they're a big deal:

• Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

• Associate hiragana symbols with the sounds they make.

• When given a model of a hiragana, trace it with her finger or a writing implement.

Yes, I'm going to start teaching reading to my kid. In fact, I already have. I planned to start teaching hiragana at age 2. That may sound really early from a Western perspective, but as a (mostly) syllabic writing system, hiragana is easier to sound out than an alphabetic writing system. From what I can tell from Googling with the pop-up translator's help, it seems like the most common ages to start teaching hiragana is around 2-3. Furthermore, I found a ton of articles insisting that you shouldn't be worried about a 4 or 5 year old not reading hiragana yet, which of course means that lots of Japanese kids are reading hiragana before this age.

So, that was my plan. But while writing the 21 month update, I looked up when to start hiragana, set it at 2 instead of 3 based on the Googling I did, and then thought “I should order a new laminator since I can't find my old one, so I can make flashcards”. And then when I had the laminator, well, I immediately wanted to play with it, and made some flashcards right away. And once I had the flashcards, well, I may as well start showing them to my daughter, right? And then I was teaching hiragana to a 21 month old.

And it's been going really well! She's been very interested in what I'm showing her and enjoying learning. She has also shown at least some evidence of recognizing い, あ, お, こ, ぬ, う, ね, し, and maybe か. And she's able to play through the app named Hiragana by Rainbow Mimizu mostly independently, which involves tracing hiragana as well as finding the target kana in various games.

In addition to that app, my main teaching strategy has been reading through the hiragana mini books. With each book, I read it to her multiple times a day (mostly during potty visits) for 4 days in a row, and then move on to the next one - while still having the previous books around and reading them occasionally.

I've been using the flashcards, too, mostly playing around with them or showing them to her when we're talking about that thing anyway (especially with the color words あお, あか and きいろ, which she's been really interested in lately). We've also been playing with sidewalk chalk with me writing vocabulary from the mini books while she scribbles randomly. 

And just recently I started trying to do themed units inspired by the Pre-K Printable Fun mailing list.

https://www.prekprintablefun.com/

The first unit was dinosaurs, and looking on HappyLilac for dinosaur educational materials, I came across a puzzle where you cut flashcards in half and then match them back up. It went over better than I expected, so I'm planning to make materials like that with simpler words written in hiragana instead of katakana with furigana.

As for connecting text to meaning, that's a bit harder for me to assess, but I think she's making progress on that, too. There have been several occasions where she has pointed to text and looked at me questioningly.

We haven't been doing many structured group activities lately. She wasn't very cooperative for a craft event at the library recently, but that craft was a bit too tough for a 2yo anyway, so I'm not sure how she might have reacted differently to an easier group activity. 

Nonverbal/Social

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals in this area:

• Points to self and objects in his/her environment

• Joint reference (ex: parent and child look at same object)

• Responds to an adult "pointing" at something.

• Have an effective way to communicate choices?

• Begins to point at things with index finger.

• Uses negative headshake alone.

• Recognize when they need to take a break?

• Recognize when they need help?

• Actively engage in activities and interactions with teachers and peers.

• In structured group activities, imitate others, follow the group and avoid being distracted by irrelevant activities.

• Understands that other people can have different likes and dislikes than their own.

• Recognizes that her reflection in a mirror is her.

She hasn't pointed at herself since our last update, but she has been enthusiastically pointing around lately. However, a lot of time she doesn't seem to be pointing at anything, and at least some of those times I think she's trying to sign G-handshape signs like go instead of strictly pointing at things. So I'm still not convinced that she knows how to use pointing to direct my attention. 

She also is still not consistently following points either. She basically only responds to my points if I say a word she knows, especially if it's kitty or doggy.

Her joint attention isn't great either. It's often really hard to get her attention to something I'm trying to show her, even things like milk bottles. She seems to have trouble shifting attention when she's focused on something - which is definitely a trait I also have, and part of why, despite the developmental specialist saying she doesn't really see many signs of autism, I still think there's a good chance she's on the spectrum.

On the other hand, she has been getting better at indicating choices. On walks to stores lately, I've been letting her choose one treat, and she seems to be figuring out the routine and making thoughtful decisions about what she wants. She's also getting better at not grabbing multiple items or protesting when I take her chosen item to give to the teller, but those are still things she does sometimes. She's also learned how to handle the screen in Rainbow Mimizu's Hiragana game where it's asking her to pick a pen to write the practice word in. Making choices is mastered.

She has shaken her hand no a few times, but she's not doing it consistently yet. She's still sometimes trying to get comfy when she's tired, but on walks she doesn't seem to have a good sense of when she needs a break - she'll be whiny, irritable, and falling every few meters, but still get mad that I'm putting her in her stroller.

On the other hand, she's doing much better at recognizing when she needs help. As I mentioned, she's been working on getting down stairs. When she does decide to go down independently, I've basically never felt that she was doing so unsafely or likely to fall. And when she's unsure if she can do it safely, she waits for me to help. Gone are the days of her deciding that falling headfirst might be a good way to get down the stairs. Similarly, with puzzles, she seems to know what she can put together herself and what she'll need help with. Unless she's tired to the point of irrational crankiness, when I offer to help and she refuses, she almost always succeeds shortly afterwards. So I'm going to mark that as mastered.

She hasn't shown much interest in her reflection. I think she probably knows it's her, but I haven't seen unambiguous evidence of it yet. I also haven't seen much evidence of her understanding different preferences lately, either.

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goals in this area:

• Transition easily from one activity to the next.

• Wait for items or events (lunch, reward, turn)?

She sometimes transitions easily, but very often she has tantrums when I interrupt something she's doing.

She's a lot more patient in waiting for milk than she used to be. Often when she's fussing, wanting milk she'll calm down when she sees I'm getting the milk ready, instead of wailing until it's actually in her mouth. However, in other situations she's still not good at waiting. The worst is when I'm about to take her for a walk and realize that I've forgotten something - she gets very upset about stopping heading out and going back in instead. 

Pragmatics - Shares Knowledge/Imaginings

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals she was working on:

• Nonverbally compares and contrasts qualities of two objects, actions or situations

• Nonverbally role play as/with different characters

• Nonverbally role plays with props (i.e., banana as phone)

• Provides a description using 1-3 words of a situation which describes the main events

• Role plays with props (i.e., banana as phone) using 1-3 words

She's finally playing pretend! I'm actually marking nonverbal role-play as mastered, because she's doing it routinely now. One day I heard a sound and saw her putting her doll to bed in her toy crib, a couple days later she fed a doll with a toy bottle, and then she was doing stuff like that all the time. She's not verbalizing her pretend play much, apart from getting toy animals to make species specific sounds, so the verbal pretend goal is ongoing. I also haven't noticed clear signs of prop-free pretend where she assumes a distinct character yet.

I'm also going to mark nonverbal comparison as mastered. She's still not consistently doing it on command, but I think I've seen enough examples of her examining similar objects and mentally highlighting the differences to be convinced she's able to do this when she feels like it.

She hasn't made much progress on describing situations as far as I can tell. 

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goals in this area:

• Correctly re-tells a story nonverbally which has been told to them

• Correctly re-tells a story which has been told to them using 1-3 words

• Tells a lie nonverbally

• Compares and contrasts qualities of two objects, actions or situations using 1-3 words

The only one of those I've seen her do so far is verbally comparing objects. Recently, I gave her two test tubes, one with rice in it and the other with powdered milk, and shook them and labeled them しずか (quiet) and うるさい (noisy). She shook them both and then said うるさい about the rice one as well. (She's heard うるさい more than しずか because the fluffy brown dog in the hiragana mini books hates loud noises, which has come up twice in recent stories.)

Pragmatics - Personal

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals she was working on in this area:

• Blames others nonverbally

• Identifies feelings nonverbally (I’m happy.)

• Offers an opinion nonverbally with support

• Explains feelings nonverbally (I’m happy because it’s my birthday)

• Provides excuses or reasons nonverbally

• Complains using 1-3 words

I haven't seen much progress in most of these. However, she did recently say and sign cold because I washed her in cold water.

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goals in this area:

• Offers an opinion with support using 1-3 words

• Provides excuses or reasons using 1-3 words

Once, many months ago, I was telling her uncle she'd said “good dog”, and she interjected “I like dog”, which could be taken as an explanation of her previous statement. Other than that, she hasn't done these yet.

Pragmatics - Interactional

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals in this area:

• Interact with others in a polite manner, nonverbally or using 1-3 words

• Uses appropriate social rules such as greetings, farewells, thank you, getting attention, nonverbally or using 1-3 words

• Ends a conversation nonverbally

• Nonverbally makes apologies or gives explanations of behavior

• States a problem nonverbally

• Disagrees with others nonverbally

• Revises/repairs an incomplete message, nonverbally or using 1-3 words

• Interjects appropriately into an already established conversation with others, nonverbally or using 1-3 words

• Requests clarification nonverbally

• Maintains a conversation (able to keep it going) using 1-3 words

• Criticizes others using 1-3 words

• Compliments others using 1-3 words

She's recently started using bye-bye appropriately, but hasn't really said hi or thank you lately. She's still ending conversations just by wandering off, and she hasn't apologized lately, either.

She's been saying no more often lately, but rarely expresses disagreement with factual statements. She's still not good at repairing incomplete conversations.

She often gives me a questioning look when she's confused by something, so I'm going to mark requesting clarification as mastered.

She's made some progress in carrying on conversations. Most of our conversations are her saying something, me responding, and then her moving on. However, sometimes she gets excited about something and repeatedly comments on it. For example, recently she heard a dog barking and spent the next several minutes saying いぬ and ワンワン (dog and woof-woof in Japanese) to keep the conversation on the dog.

She hasn't complimented or criticized much lately. 

2-2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goal in this area:

• Requests clarification using 1-3 words

• Initiates a topic of conversation using 1-3 words

Since I marked the precursor to these as mastered, of course I need to add the follow-up as a goal, right? She hasn't requested clarification verbally yet, but she has initiated conversations with a single word sometimes, especially about dogs barking.

Pragmatics - Other

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals in this area:

• Asks questions nonverbally or using 1-3 words to get more information or out of curiosity

• Gives description of an object wanted nonverbally or using 1-3 words

• Requests help using 1-3 words

• Makes requests using 1-3 words

• Gives directions to play a game nonverbally or using 1-3 word statements

• Makes choices using 1-3 words

• Expresses a specific personal need using 1-3 words

She's definitely requesting milk verbally, generally by letting out a string of whiny gibberish that includes the word “milk” and possibly “mama”. Not the most articulate, but it gets the point across. She has also made other verbal requests, but nothing consistent yet.

One day, she was getting really tired and wanted a nap, and said "milk”. I gave her milk in a sippy cup and she seemed disappointed, then thought it over a bunch and said “bottle I need”. I'd consider that an example of a description of an object wanted, but it's the only clear example of this goal I've seen so far.

Overall, most of these goals haven't shown much progress lately.

2 to 2½ Year Goals

There's one new goal in this area:

• Gives directions nonverbally to make something

She's handed us empty bottles to tell us she wants milk, but otherwise she hasn't done anything like this yet.

Language Specific Goals

ASL

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the ASL-specific goals she was working on last update:

• First ASL signs using simple handshapes (ex: c, a, s, 1, 5) (VCSL 30)

• Recognizes name signs of family members (VCSL 23)

• Recognizes own name sign (VCSL 22)

• Recognize common high-frequency signs (C.FS.K.3a)

• Has some recognizable words. (L.S.18)

I haven't been doing a lot in ASL with her lately, but I have been working the activities in my textbook from the ASL class I took a few years ago, by watching the practice DVD with her when she's getting ready for a nap. I've also continued to do the Year of Core Vocabulary songs ASL practice.

I'm marking simple handshapes as mastered, since according to my records, she has produced at least one sign with each of those handshapes so far. She isn't consistently distinguishing A vs S, but those handshapes are often interchangeable anyway.

So far she has shown no indication that she understands the signs mother, uncle, grandma or grandpa, which I'm using in place of name signs for our family members. She also doesn't seem to recognize when I fingerspell the first initial of her name to refer to her. I haven't been using those particular signs all that often, to be fair.

I find it hard to tell what words she recognizes in general, and she often doesn't seem to be looking at me when I sign or at videos of people signing unless they're talking at the same time. So, quite frankly, I don't know how many signs she recognizes. So far, she has used 29 distinct signs so far, so I'm marking having a few signs as mastered.

2 to 2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goals in ASL:

• Expanded use of handshapes (ex: b, f, o)

• Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.

• Enjoys signed stories and imitates the actions/facial expression of characters in the story.

She has used O handshape several times, and once she signed blue with the B handshape, but she hasn't done the F handshape yet.

Most of her signs are nouns, but she's used 6 definite verbs and two signs that could be verbs or nouns (eat/food and drink).

It's really tough to get her to pay attention to ASL narratives for long without interesting sound effects.

French

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals I was focusing on in French:

• Recognizes common household words. (L.H&U.12)

• Has some recognizable words. (L.S.18)

• Says "mama" for specific person. (L.S.15)

We've finished Mon Bébé Sais Lire, and consequently her French exposure has gone down and I haven't heard her using many French words lately. She has been getting better at singing along with Patapons Comptines, however, so that's led to a couple new words like “ohé!” (which I think is basically the French version of “ahoy” - anyway it's from Il Etait Un Petit Navire).

She's also been saying “mama” much less in general, but will say it sometimes when she wants a bottle of milk to help her fall asleep. I haven't heard “maman” lately, but it's hard to really tell.

There's still no French words I've been hearing consistently - just ones she’s said once or twice - so I'm going to wait on declaring that she's mastered the goal of recognizable words. 

There are no new goals in French yet.

Dutch

15-18 Month Goals

The goals we were working on in Dutch are the same as the ones in French:

• Recognizes common household words. (L.H&U.12)

• Has some recognizable words. (L.S.18)

• Says "mama" for specific person. (L.S.15)

We've been watching through the veilig leren lezen letterfilmtjes, and she's imitated some words from them. But overall, the situation is fairly similar to French. 

There are no new goals in Dutch yet.

Japanese

21-24 Month Goals

Here's what she's been working on in Japanese:

• Recognizes common household words. (L.H&U.12)

• Has some recognizable words. (L.S.18)

• Says "mama" for specific person. (L.S.15)

• Can identify (by pointing) various body parts. (L.H&U.17)

• Can comply with simple requests containing action and object. (L.H&U.18)

• Can identify (by pointing) objects in pictures and books. (L.H&U.20)

• Names at least 3 colors (VCSL 44)

Since she's started learning hiragana, our Japanese practice has gone up considerably. Japanese is currently her second strongest language, and she's actually got a Japanese vocabulary within the normal range for monolingual children. The hiragana mini books are great for teaching vocabulary as well as teaching hiragana, and she's also been learning a lot from her flashcards.

I'm definitely marking recognizable words as mastered. I'm also going to say she understands a lot of words she can't say yet, for example she will often say the right animal sound if I say the name of an animal.

Naming 3 colors is also mastered - she knows あか, あお and きいろ so well that she's been rattling them off whenever she's bored. She does sometimes name the wrong color, but that's a more advanced goal. This is actually the first language goal she's mastered in another language before mastering it in English!

She doesn't seem to know any of the Japanese words for mother, except for "mama” which is the same in English, and I'm not counting that. She also hasn’t really learned any body parts yet, despite me trying to teach her あし. She's also not consistently pointing at anything on request yet.

She will sometimes follow simple commands in Japanese, especially (noun)ください when I want her to give me something, but she's not doing it consistently either.

2 - 2½ Year Goals

Here's the new goal in Japanese:

• use counters

We've been watching a YouTube series of Japanese vocabulary by the channel PuniPuni, and they have several videos on counters. My child has said ひき, いっけん and けん, and わ in response to those videos, and ごこ mimicking me counting blocks. She hasn't used any counters spontaneously yet.

Sensory and Science

Sensory

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals she was working on:

• Discriminate objects by sight (0.SS.021)

• Discriminate objects by the sense of touch (0.SS.032)

• Experience timbre, rhythm and beat (0.SS.041)

• Identify objects by sound (0.SS.043)

She's singing a lot more than she was last update. Most of the time, she sings in gibberish, but with a completely accurate tune, and whichever words of the lyrics she knows how to say. I'm going to mark the music goal as mastered.

She's getting better at shape-matching puzzles. She sometimes gets the orientation wrong, but basically never tries to put the wrong shape in the hole. She's also been playing with a number match puzzle recently, and she does get numbers confused (eg 3 vs 8) but is usually mostly correct. So I'm going to say this goal is very close to being mastered, but not quite there yet.

I haven't seen much sign of progress in touch discrimination so far.

She can definitely tell many sounds apart. If she hears barking, she'll usually say いぬ (Japanese for dog). There have also been some times when I start moving her high chair and she recognizes the sound and comes running to get fed.

There are no new goals in this area.

Science

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the science goals we were working on:

• Begins to associate names of objects with images.

• Matches objects to pictures.

• Pairs identical pictures.

• Pairs related pictures.

• Sorts objects by shape.

• Sorts objects by color.

• Begins to use objects for their intended purpose.

• Sorts objects by category (e.g. buttons, animals, beads etc.).

She's been making a lot of progress associating names of objects with pictures, because of the practice with Japanese flashcards. Specifically with many pictures of animals, she will say either their Japanese name or the sound that animal makes. I'm going to mark this goal as mastered.

I haven't been trying to get her to match objects to pictures or match pictures lately.

She's definitely noticing shapes when it comes to fitting them in puzzles, and she's naming colors, but she doesn't seem to think to sort objects in categories yet. When I'm sorting the rings on her counting stacker by color, she often jumps in to “help” by putting the wrong color on a peg. So I don't think she gets the idea of sorting things yet.

“Uses objects for intended purpose” is a confusing wording, but it means stuff like pretending with toys that are designed to look like real-life things by treating them like that thing. She has mastered this, I think. She puts baby dolls in her toy crib and stroller, she pretends to eat toy food and drink from empty cups, and she puts her dolls in toy vehicles and drives them around.

There are no new items in this area.

Math

2 to 2½ Year Goals

This is a new subject area. Here's the goals in this area:

• Count from 1 to 5

• Recognize the written numbers 0-9 and label them with corresponding words.

• When counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each object with one and only one number name and each number name with one and only one object.

She's recently developed an interest in counting, partly fuelled by me pulling out a counting stacker puzzle I'd been storing until she's ready. She's said numbers in English, French, Dutch and Japanese so far, but isn't consistently counting in any language yet.

However, I have started doing the Sightwords.com counting curriculum, and have managed to prompt her to count to 2 in Japanese so far. So hopefully we can keep building on that. 

She's got two puzzles involving counting. Her counting stacker includes tokens that have the numbers on them, which you're supposed to match with the number of rings that fit on the corresponding peg. In addition, she has a matching puzzle with numbers 0-9. I've been modeling the names of the numbers in English, Japanese and ASL with those toys, but she doesn't seem to have learned to associate the words with the numerals yet.

Executive Functioning

21-24 Month Goals

Here's the goals she's working on in this area:

• Transition times rarely incite tantrums/excessive anxiety.

• Can remember and follow simple one- to two-step routines (such as brushing teeth and combing hair after breakfast).

The routine goal is one I'd forgotten in the previous update, but she's definitely been recognizing routines. She requests a walk by putting on her shoes and trying to put on her backpack leash. She also brought me my glasses once when I was trying to sleep in and she wanted me to wake up. She's also starting to repeat “time to go” after me and set her toys down when I'm about to pick her up out of the tub.

As for the tantrums goal, she hasn't made much progress there.

There are no new goals in this area.