Developmental Guidelines: What Most Babies Do at 24 Months

Social and Emotional

• Copies others, especially adults and older children
• Gets excited when with other children
• Shows more and more independence
• Shows defiant behavior (doing what he has been told not to)
• Plays mainly beside other children but is beginning to include other children, such as in chase games

Language/Communication

• Says sentences with 2 to 4 words
• Repeats words overheard in conversation
• Knows names of familiar people and body parts
• Follows two-step instructions such as “Pick up your shoes and put them in the closet”
• Points to things in a book

Cognitive (Learning, Thinking, Problem-Solving)

• Finds things even when hidden under two or three covers
• Beings to sort shapes and colors
• Completes sentences and rhymes in familiar books
• Plays simple make-believe games
• Builds towers of 4 or more blocks
• Names items in a picture book such as cat, bird or dog

Movement/Physical Development

• Stands on tiptoe
• Kicks a ball
• Begins to run
• Climbs onto and down from furniture without help
• Walks up and down stairs holding on
• Makes or copies straight lines and circles

Red Flags For 24 Month Old Babies

• Doesn’t use 2-word phrases (“drink milk)
• Doesn’t know what to do with common things like a brush, phone, fork, spoon
• Doesn’t copy actions and words
• Doesn’t follow simple instructions
• Doesn’t walk steadily
• Loses skills she once had

Have a question? Want to learn more? Leave a comment at the bottom of this blog or email reachforthestars@achievebeyondusa.com and we will do our best to follow up with you.

About Achieve Beyond

Achieve Beyond is an agency founded by Dr. Trudy Font-Padron in 1995 and remains a family-run company. Achieve Beyond is a leader in providing pediatric therapy, autism, and early intervention services in New York City, Long Island, Hudson Valley, Texas, New Jersey, Virginia and Metro DC. They are dedicated to providing quality evaluations and therapeutic/educational services to children ages birth to 21 years of age.