Research help: Toddlers

[zinnith]

Progress report for sgabigbang: 36k.

Now I'm getting to the point where I need the help from the mommies and daddies out there again. That baby I asked about a while ago? Well, she has grown. She's now a two-year-old, and I have questions concerning toddlers.

- What do they eat? Baby food? Adult food in suitable pieces?
- What kind of vocabulary do they have? Can you have a simple conversation with them? Would people other than their parents be able to understand them?
- Sleeping habits. Do they need to nap during the day? How many hours of sleep does the average two-year-old need?
- Anything else you think I need to know to write a believable toddler.

I realise that the development differs a lot from child to child (I asked my mother and it turned into a long discussion comparing me and my siblings. Apparently, they had much trouble potty training me. TMI, mum!) So any stories about your kids or kids you know or just kids in general will be extremely helpful to me. Hey, if we could build a dog together, we should be able to build a child, right?

Comments

[vida-boheme.livejournal.com]

They's be eating adult food in smaller pieces and tend to hover if you have something interesting they might like to try.

At two they would be able to have quite simple but relatively clear conversations with strangers - Asking for and about things - though they might mispronounce/misuse some words, people tend to be able to interprete.

With parents that is obviously easier, as they are used to the way their child speaks and what they might be trying to get across when they don't have the exact words. Two-year olds are also very good at dragging and pointing if they need to!

At two, my eldest was sleeping 8pm through to 7am and then napping for an hour or more after lunch. The youngest slept from 7pm - 8am (I remember so clearly because of the switch around in timing :D but wouldn't nap more than an hour in the day. I'd say that the average toddler sleeps thirteen hours out of twenty-four.

[ariadne83]

My niece (just over two):

Gets up at 7am, has one-hour naps at 10 and 2.
Breakfast: toast.
Small snack after morning nap and afternoon nap. Crackers and hummus, fruit. That sort of thing.
Lunch (11:30 ish)/Dinner(5:30 ish) type of food: pasta and veges.

Then she has a bath, bedtime stories, and brushes her own teeth. She goes down for the night at 7pm and sleeps through until morning.

I also used to work at a daycare for under-threes. They had a similar schedule to my niece, except that the toddlers only had one nap, from about 1-3pm.

One particular thing I've noticed about toddler vocabulary is that they tend to refer to themselves in the third person when they're in the 2 - 2 1/2 years range e.g. my niece will say "Caitlin do it" if she wants to do a task herself, and refers to photos of herself as "Caitlin", not "me". And she's not old enough to realize that her parents have names other than Mummy and Daddy.

Yes, people other than her parents can understand her, but it's easier for me to figure things out from context, sometimes, that to figure out her pronunciation.

[ariadne83]

Oh, and by the age of two most kids have pretty much a full set of milk teeth, so they definitely wouldn't be eating mushed baby food. They'd have adult-type food, cut up small.

[anyanka-eg.livejournal.com]

Around two my cousins and friend's kids were saying some great things that have become stuck in the family legends. So here's some incase you want them.

1. My mum on the phone to her sister
Mum: How's Tom?
Sister: Oh, he's been a right whingebag all day
Tom: (in the background in a very pathetic, whinging voice) Not I whingebag!

2. Friend's kid in the car. He was in the back in his child seat
Stefan: (slightly panicked) Where's Stefan gone?
Dad, turns round to find his hat had slipped over his eyes

3. Same kid. Whatever it was he was supposed to be doing has been lost in the mists of time, only the response is remembered
Dad: Why don't you do it?
Stafan: I don't know how to look at it.


Stefan also wanted to call his new ginger kitten, House. This is many years ago before the tv series was invented (Stefan is now 23). My brother also wanted to call our cat Cherrystone when he was about two, come to think of it.

[tarlanx]

OH you are so lucky! I didn't get a full nights sleep until the youngest went to school aged 4! Mine were HORRORS, taking it in turn to wake me up through the night so I'd barely get an hour's sleep at a time :(

[zeenell]

*snickers*

Oh man, I'm reading everyone elses things, and I'm all - lucky lucky them.

None of my younger siblings (I have 5 younger siblings) would ever go to bed before 10. Often times, they would still be awake at midnight.

We would put them in their crib, and they would babble and play with their stuffed animal(s) - that you couldn't take away because they wouldn't sleep without it.

And than they would climb out and wander into odd spots.

We used to find my younger brother sleeping in really strange spots (...he once got on top of the fridge and slept there. Yes, it was a full size fridge).

They slept for 8 to 10 hours, depending on the sibling, and only one of them ever needed naps, and that was only if she had nightmares or was sick.

(Now they love naps. Oi, teens and pre-teens).

Most of them could carry on a conversation with a stranger, and my youngest sister would WALK up to strangers and ask for hugs. It didn't matter how many times you told her no, she would do it.

They get into EVERYTHING, and if you leave them for a second, because they are old enough for a few minutes. Er, you might come back to feathers everywhere, or hair cut, or things pulled off of furniture onto the floor.

(Or someone on top furniture climbing higher. Or the time the one sister actually somehow managed to PULL A TV ON HERSELF - she broke a cheekbone and her nose and had a black eye. We had a DYFS visit). All my mom did was go to the bathroom. It was very WTF.

Little kids at about 2 LOVE to play make-believe, but sometimes think it's true. They also love crashing toys into each other and making as much noise as possible. Give them a toy car, and it's running up everything to 'crash' on the floor with sound effects.

(...my younger siblings had more fun playing with the boxes the toys came in than actually playing with the toys, actually).

Actually - if it's quiet (depending on the child), then you better investigate. Something is going on. And if there are siblings involved? MOVE FASTER.

(If a child has an older sibling, they will do things at the earlier stage of the development chart, in general, because the older siblings teach them things).

*G*

Also, the best time to brainwash a kid is about 2 to 3. That was the summer I taught my youngest sister to answer to Bob by giving her a piece of candy every time she did. She is 11, and she will STILL answer to Bob.

ETA: Most kids do have actual beds by 2. My family only still had them in cribs at two because of space issues or not having enough money for a mattress for them. *shrugs*

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

That's very helpful, thank you! I think the vocabulary is what I'm the most worried about since I just haven't been around children very much lately and kidspeak is so hard to get right. The kid doesn't have a big role in the story, but I want to get the scenes she does have good.

Thanks for the help!

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Ooh, the third person thing is good, I'll definitely use that! And I actually remember what an enormous discovery it was for me to find out that Mum and Dad actually had names of their own :) I don't remember how old I was but I think it was about the same time I learned how to read so between three and four I think.

Thank you for the help!

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

I love kid!quotes! And I LOLed at the catnames! Which reminds me - Anna is going to have a lot of fun with Newton :) I can just imagine her running around going 'kitty!' and poor Newton running away in horror of the sticky little huma chasing him. He is a very dignified cat.

Thank you!

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

So true on the the older sibling thing. I found my sisters very useful to blame things on. Mum has been telling me stories about how I used to blame stuff on my sister #1 since the day she was born. I'd say that 'J told me to do it!'. And when she grew up, if there was something I didn't dare do myself in fear of maternal wrath, I'd convince her to do it instead. It's a miracle she survived to adulthood...

Verrrry useful information about the brainwashing! I will definitely use that. Imagine John and Rodney getting their hands on a two-year-old. Her poor parents won't know what hit them. *evil grin*

[the-cephalopod.livejournal.com]

*is unable to offer any advice but is taking copious notes*

:)

cep xxx

PS Yay for 36K!!

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Look at all the fun stuff you have to look forward to!

PS. It's 38k now. Slow day at work...When I hit 40 I think I'm going to take a break and write some porn.

[the-cephalopod.livejournal.com]

Hee - that's even better! Roll on 40K and the porn!!! cep xxx

[zeenell]

I'm second born, but my older brother is 4 years older, so I spent a lot of time either saying he told me to do stuff, or blaming whichever little kid happened to be home.

...It's a miracle none of them attempted to kill me for it.

*G*

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

I feel a bit guilty about the time I got her to ride her tricycle down the porch steps. She still has the scars from where she scraped her face against the gravel and both she and Mum still thinks it was her own idea. I believe she was three at the time. If she ever finds out, she probably will kill me.

[busaikko]

I have two spawn, let's see what I remember!

At age 2 they can eat real food. If it's a first kid, you can still (and probably should) keep them from even knowing what sugar is: no candy, cookies, cake, etc. With a second kid, good luck! A lot of the temper tantrums that kids are famous for can be related to either being tired or hungry: give them a quiet minute with a graham cracker or apple slices or whatever, and you're good to go. 2 year olds still need to have a stroller in shops and on long walks.

People who try and write 'weeawistic toddwa bobaberry' (realistic toddler vocabulary) in dialect drive me up the wall: it gets really grating, really fast, and not all little kids lisp. Little kids tend to repeat things ('And the car, the car, goed, goed fast and it was, red car.') and unrealistic grammar patterns knock me out of a story fast. Try YouTube-searching for 'second birhday' or 'two years old' to get some idea of how kids talk. And some kids (generally girls) are already real conversationalists at 2. My kids (boys) were not: they both had two-word sentences until about 2 and a half ('Book, no. [ba]nana, more. Go park.').

My kids woke at 6 or 7, napped after lunch, and went to bed between 8 or 9. If kids go to day care they get on the daycare schedule (ours was mandatory after-lunch napping *g*)

Kids get fixations. My older one loved construction and construction sites and vehicles: we could spend *hours* watching construction. The second one liked trains and airplanes.

Toilet training is most effective if you wait until the child is physically ready, around age 3 to 3 and a half. Before that, mostly you get mother training ('Whoa, Mary looks like she needs to go!').

[wanted-a-pony.livejournal.com]

Haven't spawned myself, but I've observed my friends' sprats. By 2 or 2-1/2 years old, individual kids can vary much more than I'd imagined. Some are barely talking; others can hold a rather complex conversation & are getting close to reading. I agree with what someone above said about toddlers tending to repeat themselves a lot—not stuttering, just having a little trouble stringing words together fast enough to keep up with their thoughts. Sleeping habits are also highly variable, especially when the munchkin is sick or stressed. One can see at this age how a child's personality & temperament affect things like food preferences (& willingness to try foods), clothing tastes (or lack of interest), ability to self-entertain, openness to strange people & situations, etc. (Sadly, it's very easy to pick out the ones who have been raised by TVs.)

2.5-year-old girls (or particularly smart or manipulative kids of either gender) are very able to manipulate other people's actions & opinions through words or behavior. The child may not always be completely aware of doing it, but it's certainly goal-oriented & intentional. This is also the beginning age of devastatingly clear-eyed observations, if there's someone in the fic you'd like to skewer neatly. >;-)

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Heh. My brother still only uses two word sentences and he's eighteen...

Thank you for the info, it's all very useful. Especially the stroller thing, I hadn't even thought of that! And she'll need a carseat too of course. I think I need to give John and Rodney a neighbour with grown kids they can borrow stuff from. It would be a little difficult to bring all those things on a plane, wouldn't it?

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

This is also the beginning age of devastatingly clear-eyed observations, if there's someone in the fic you'd like to skewer neatly. >;-)
Like the homophobic dad making John's life a hell? Oh, if I only could... but I think I'll let him get skewered by his own kid.

I think Anna is one of those talky kids and very good at entertaining herself with things she may or not be supposed to do ;) Right now, however, she's jetlagged and whiny.

[busaikko]

People with kids are generally pretty well networked, so it's easy to get stuff *g* (I know this because when we visit my parents [who got rid of baby stuff, like, 30 years ago], there's always 'this stroller we got from Katherine' and 'the highchair from Goodwill' and 'some toys from a tagsale' and 'these great baby clothes from the woman just around the corner whose twins are 4 now'. We never need to bring anything, which is great!)

[busaikko]

Oh! And ask me if you need stories about kids and airplanes and jet lag! (We live in Japan; my family's 2 flights and about 14 hours away, not counting layovers. I once spent 5 hours in Dallas airport with a 1 year old....)