During this month gross motor skills continue to improve as toddlers learns to smoothly adjust their speed while walking or running. They can also jump forward 3-4 inches with both feet.

When it comes to fine motor skills, little ones are better able to coordinate arm, finger, and wrist movements to do things like use puppets or remove lids from larger containers.

Pretend play becomes increasingly sophisticated with more props, multi-step storylines, and evidence of using memory and reasoning (putting on an apron before pretending to cook, for example). Around other children they still mostly engage in parallel play, but show signs of interest in playing with other children. When prompted by a trusted adult, they can appropriately respond to the feelings of others (offering a hug if someone is sad, for example).

Storytime rises to a new level as talkative toddlers act out favorite parts of books, and demonstrate reading comprehension by answering questions about stories. When they speak, they may use the present progressive (adding “ing” to words: daddy cooking), and new sounds such as k, g, t, d and ng.

Independence increases as children are now able to find the arm holes in t-shirts, and wash and dry hands without help. At the same time, they need reassurance when they feel afraid of imaginary fears, like monsters under the bed; at this age they still can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality.

Remember that children are delightfully unique and some of these milestones will happen before or after this month.