Cognitive development at age 2: What’s happening in your child’s brain?

At age 2, your child’s brain is undergoing a reconstruction. The neural connections they’ve made since birth are being pruned and refined—paving the way for more complex thinking. If you observe closely, you might see some of these new skills in action:

Following two-step instructions

At age 1, your child could follow one-step commands, like, “Bring me your shoes.” As their working memory and vocabulary expand, they may be starting to understand and follow simple, two-step instructions. At this stage, you’ll want to keep directions simple—with two specific, related actions and a single object: “Please put your dirty socks in the hamper and get a pair of clean socks out of your drawer.” Remember, just because they can follow two-step directions doesn’t mean they always will 😉

Using tools to solve problems

Your child has already learned to solve simple problems, like rotating a puzzle piece to make it fit into its spot. At age 2, they’re starting to understand how to use tools to overcome new challenges. For example, they may get a small stool to help them reach a high counter. 

Deepening their understanding of causality

Your child may already understand some cause-and-effect relationships, like a light switch turns on a light. Now, you may start to see them act independently on their observations. For example, if your 2-year-old is in a dark room, they may use their causal knowledge to go turn on a light because they’ve seen you do it before.

Learn more about the research

Gilmore, J., Knickmeyer, R. & Gao, W. (2018) Imaging structural and functional brain development in early childhood. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 19, 123–137. 

Girault, J. B., Cornea, E., Goldman, B. D., Knickmeyer, R. C., Styner, M., & Gilmore, J. H. (2019). White matter microstructural development and cognitive ability in the first 2 years of life. Human Brain Mapping, 40(4), 1195-1210.

Meltzoff, A. N., Waismeyer, A., & Gopnik, A. (2012). Learning about causes from people: observational causal learning in 24-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology, 48(5), 1215.

Norbom, L. B., Ferschmann, L., Parker, N., Agartz, I., Andreassen, O. A., Paus, T., … & Tamnes, C. K. (2021). New insights into the dynamic development of the cerebral cortex in childhood and adolescence: Integrating macro-and microstructural MRI findings. Progress in Neurobiology, 204, 102109.

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