Let the albums come out…
Birthdays are pleasant gatherings to see big family and friends together. Before your birthday, you can look at the album with your child; especially who you expect to be on your birthday and close relatives are, where they are, etc. You can talk about it. Talking about the people or events in the photo by looking at the albums frequently will contribute to your child’s social and emotional development as well as their communication skills.
Will two years be too hard? Is there such a thing as two-year-old syndrome?
Two years is actually not a difficult age at all. Of course, your babies may have different difficulties in each period. It is a period when your two-year-olds rise up, speak out, try to prove this to us as well as build themselves. Whether it becomes a syndrome or a crisis is mostly in your hands. If you know well what stages your children are going through during this period; By directing your expectations and approaches in this direction, you can turn these years into years that you remember with more sweet days. Well, let’s see what emotions your child may experience over the next year due to the characteristics of his age…
Identity crisis
The age of two is a period when the child begins to express himself verbally. In this period, especially children who think that they are a whole with their mother, begin to see themselves as independent from their environment. We’ve mentioned Erik Erikson before. He is known for his work in developmental psychology, psychoanalysis, and especially social development theory. Erikson, who was the first psychologist to use the concept of “identity crisis”, defines the period starting from the 12th month and extending to the age of two in his psycho-social development theory with “shame and skepticism towards independence”. According to Erikson, in order for the child to develop self-esteem and self-confidence, he needs to gain self-control and feel a sense of independence. As a matter of fact, children do not want to be completely dependent on others during this period. They are testing both themselves and their parents’ limits on what they can and cannot do. From this point of view, it becomes important to structure the child’s environment in a way that will enable them to gain the ability to “solve problems” (for example, trying to dress by oneself, eating, etc.).
Independence
The foundation for the child’s sense of independence is laid when they are encouraged and supported to strive. On the other hand, growing up in an environment that is the opposite of the aforementioned situation (extremely protected, limited) may cause the child to doubt himself and his abilities and to feel ashamed of his own needs.
This stage is when your child begins to imitate adult behavior. Your child has come a long way, both cognitively and physically, when compared to an age stage. In this period, it is in the “parallel game” phase. Empathy is not yet developed. He does not like to share his belongings and toys with his peers. Although he does not prefer to play with his peers, he enjoys being in the same environment with them.
Negative depression
During this period, your child’s emotions and behaviors have gained diversity. In other words, a two-year-old child experiences transitions between emotions such as happiness, anger, love, surprise and shows appropriate behavior patterns. The emotions and behaviors of “negativist depression” (negative depression) in the two-year-old period are remarkable. In other words, it can exhibit features such as stubbornness, incompatibility, reactivity and negativity. We mentioned some of them in the 96th week. She goes against her parents’ wishes. The number of things he wants to do on his own has increased. In this period, he behaves insistently to show his own competence and in this sense, he often tends to object if he is prevented.
Bursts of emotion
Especially around the age of 2.5, children who enter a challenging period with their parents experiencing emotional outbursts are very persistent in fulfilling their wishes, and they try to get what they want by crying, kicking and even having tantrums. Due to such behavioral characteristics, it is observed that this period is generally called the two-year-old syndrome among the people. You can often be surprised by your child’s changing emotions and behaviors. However, it is important to remind yourself that this is not intentional and genuine aggression and is a characteristic of the developmental stage. In this period, the child’s negative behaviors are due to his insecurity in himself and the world. The child, who transitions from infancy to childhood, tends to perceive the world as big and dangerous. Your child impulsively believes that he can feel safer if he can control at least a small part of the seemingly vast world, which consists of his parents. During this period, he can usually respond to you in two ways. They either ignore it or object as no. And most importantly, you can understand their feelings and ask from a compassionate place, “What does he need right now? If I were him, how would I want my parents to treat me in this situation?” You can ask yourself these questions and look at their emotional intensity and transitions from a more understanding place.