Development milestones - your child 18 to 24 months
Regardless of their size and shape, most toddlers between 18 to 24 months reach developmental milestones at about the same time. Keep an eye on these milestones as they are important steps in your child’s development.
Physical and skills milestones
Most toddlers are walking and probably running by 18 months and most will have started walking up and down stairs with your help.
Although your toddler will probably like to play near other children, they may not always want to play with them. They will become better at kicking or throwing a ball, scribbling with a pencil and creating structures with blocks.
By 24 months, your toddler will probably show a preference for using one hand over the other. Toddlers of this age often want to eat and drink by themselves, using a spoon and cup and perhaps a fork.
Your child might try to help you undress them by taking off their socks, shoes and clothes that don’t have buttons. From about 18 months, it is normal for your toddler to change their eating habits by eating less as their rate of growth slows. It is also normal for them to become fussy about food and show strong likes and dislikes (that can change quickly).
Read more about toddlers' eating habits.
Your toddler may show signs of being ready for toilet training at 18 months and many children will be ready from about 24 months.
Emotional milestones
At this age, your child starts to feel more emotions like anger, shame and excitement. They may start deliberately doing what you’ve told them not to do. But they’re also learning to think about how they feel and dealing with these emotions which can lead to temper tantrums.
Toddlers use temper tantrums to deal with difficult feelings. Different ‘tantrum’ behaviours include:
- being very angry
- crying, screaming or shouting
- throwing or breaking things
- running away
- kicking or otherwise being aggressive
- becoming rigid
- holding their breath or vomiting
It is important that your toddler has enough food and sleep. Your toddler should sleep for 12 to 13 hours in a 24-hour period, including a long overnight sleep. Some toddlers need 1 to 2 sleeps during the day while others require none.
Read more about sleep and settling.
Separation anxiety is usually strongest at about 18 months, so you might notice that it becomes less intense by 24 months.
Thinking and communication milestones
Between 18 and 24 months, your toddler’s brain is developing nerve connections and pathways that are affected by all the things they try and learn, and their experiences of life. They copy you and other people and repeat things they hear.
Your toddler will probably start being able to:
- find hidden things
- sort shapes and colours
- complete familiar rhymes and parts of songs
- name items in books
Their language skills develop, too. They experiment with between 1 and 7 new words each week to describe things they see, parts of their body and animal sounds. They also start pointing to things they recognise in picture books.
Your child will be learning to understand and follow instructions and are likely to begin asking for ‘more’, and saying ‘no’ and ‘why’ when asked to do something. By 24 months most toddlers know about 50 words and use sentences of two or more words to describe their needs or what they see.
Some toddlers link the new feelings they are experiencing with words, such as ‘sad’, or express affection by giving you or a favourite toy hugs or kisses. Read more about speech development in children.
Helping your toddler’s development
If you encourage and praise attempts at new and existing activities, your toddler will gain the confidence to try new things, develop new skills and extend the ones they have.
You can help your child become confident and independent by remaining nearby as they explore their surroundings.
Talking to toddlers and reading aloud encourages them to try using words to communicate.
If you’re concerned
You should contact your doctor or child health nurse if by 24 months your child doesn't:
- use two word phrases such as ‘drink milk’
- seem to know what to do with common things like a brush, phone, fork or spoon
- copy your actions or words
- follow simple instructions
- walk steadily
- retain the skills they once had
Vaccinations
At 18 months, they should receive the measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (varicella) (MMRV) vaccination, the diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis) vaccination and the Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) vaccine.
Find out more about the Australian vaccination program.
If you have questions or are worried about your child’s development contact your doctor or child health nurse.
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