The second year of life is a time of rapid overall growth. Early two-year-olds may speak in sentences of three or more words and correctly use approximately 50 words, while at age three, children can use longer sentences and their vocabulary may consist of nearly 900 words.

Like all preschool children, two-year-olds are egocentric; that is, they are unable to see anothers point of view and therefore find it difficult to share materials and toys. This is particularly true of later two-year-olds and early three-year-olds, who often demonstrate resistant behavior in transition times.

Nevertheless, two-year-olds are capable of demonstrating certain skills, for example, two-year-olds are beginning to enjoy looking at books and listening to stories. They can imitate the behavior of other children as well as the actions of an adult. In art, they are able to paste collage pieces to paper. Further, their vertical scribbling strokes eventually evolve into faces as they approach the age of three.

Two-year-olds play is primarily sensory-motor, which is the free movement of large and small muscles. They are able to walk up and down stairs and run without constantly falling. Late two-year-olds can engage in simple symbolic or make-believe play. They can pretend to drink from a cup, for example, by using a cylindrical block instead of a real cup.

These and many other characteristics are classified undeer the area of cognitive, language, self esteem social studies, math, science, and gross and fine motor movements.