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

• Points to things or pictures when they are named 
• Knows names of familiar people and body parts 
• Says sentences with 2 to 4 words 
• Follows simple instructions 
• Repeats words overheard in conversation 
• Points to things in a book

Cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving)

• Finds things even when hidden under two or three covers 
• Begins to sort shapes and colors 
• Completes sentences and rhymes in familiar books 
• Plays simple make-believe games 
• Builds towers of 4 or more blocks 
• Might use one hand more than the other 
• Follows two-step instructions such as “Pick up your shoes and put them in the closet.” 
• Names items in a picture book such as a 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 
• Throws ball overhand 
• Makes or copies straight lines and circles