He can laugh at funny things
Your child will start to laugh at funny things in the 17-18th months. He may have been smiling at you since the first months, but now he will achieve to smile by understanding and finding it funny. Many children at this age find ridiculous things and wrong things funny and laugh. For example, it may seem funny for him to put the fruit bowl on your head or put on the socks on your hands rather than on your feet. Provide opportunities to make him laugh by creating such situations.
He can mimic some behaviours
Most children may mimic some behaviours of adults in the 18-20th months. That he takes the phone and pretends to talk in the way that you give to him makes it clear that he understands what’s going on around him. Now you can start playing the games of things that you have witnessed in his life. Develop games in which you two be a doctor, cook or drive a car and play together.
He can set a goal and achieve it
Most children in 20-22 months want to do something for a certain purpose and know what to do to achieve that goal. He makes a plan to achieve his goal. This is an important stage for his cognitive development. The works that he is targeting may not always be the ones you approve, for example, he can try to paint the wall with a pink pen. You can guide him to do this in a different way, for example, on a cardboard that you will stick on the wall. But keep in mind that this is an important stage of his mental development.
Recognizing boundaries and empathizing
Towards the end of the second year, your child will now begin to care about your approval in 22-24 months. This is an indication that he has begun to be able to empathize and is an important step towards understanding what others feel and think. It is also an important stage of development for him to understand that there are certain limits for himself. You can support his development by giving him some simple tasks and approving him when he did them. For example, when the game is over, support him to put the toys in the box with your help and when he does it, applaud.
At the end of 24 months, some children may have reached further stages of development than these stages. At the end of the second year of age, some of the children can hold onto one place and stand on balance on his one foot, comb his hair, do basic cleaning works with other’s help, give signs to show that he is ready to get toilet training, make sentences half of which is understood by other, establish short sentences mentioning himself (such as Ali wants milk), can sing simple songs, can show interest in playing with other children. A smaller population of children can even build towers by placing up to 8 cubes on top of each other, can make chats consisting of 2-3 sentences and can say more than 100 words. A small number of children can pedal on a tricycle, classify objects by type (such as balls, babies and animals) and respond when his name is asked to him. These are normally the stages of development that are expected for many children in later months. However, as children’s hair and eye colors are different from each other, their growth rates are different from each other, as well. Each child will show a development at his own growth rate. Some children can achieve them earlier, some later. This is normal unless major deviations are observed from the indicated development stages. However, if you are observing that your child falls largely behind these stages, please talk to your doctor.