Children become more interested in the world around them, including the environment and people. Children begin to play peek-a-boo with one another, and practice object permanence, and turn-taking. Children begin to participate in dramatic play, and the roles they come up with are unique from one another, no dramatic play is exactly the same.

Children begin to rapidly expand their vocabulary. Single words turn into sentences, where they begin to share their thoughts, and feelings. We also see conclusions they may make based on prior experiences. An example would be telling a child that it's time to be quiet because friends are tired and need to sleep. The child then yells, "Tired? No. Coffee, get coffee!"

They begin to practice more complex strategies to solve problems, such as putting different toy keys into the child lock on the door to see if it opens or bracing a block tower as they build to prevent it from falling over.

We begin to see longer attention maintenance either through group activities, or solidary play where children will engage in their play meaningfully for longer periods of time. Memory is also something we will see as children remember others, games they have played previously, or skills they are mastering.

We also see children mastering self-regulation, and the ability to ask for help when another child takes a toy or accepting that we must wait our turn.

The early years are full of examples, and it's great to see all these little things unfold over the months they are with me, and I get to see who they have decided they want to be.