2 year old sleep challenges: Brain development

Toddlers can be amazing little people.  They are starting to shed their babyhood and are now walking/talking little individuals.  They are often small people with a large will.  Many moments in the day can be both simultaneously frustrating and amazing all at the same time.  Because many 2 year olds are starting to develop improved verbal skills, they are beginning to understand the way their words can influence the world around them.  This can be super helpful.  I remember spending many months as a mom of a baby wishing that my child could just tell me what he or she wanted in that moment.  Never fear, that moment comes when you have a verbal toddler who is now telling you want he or she wants you to do, all over the place.  I then remember thinking to myself, “who taught this child to talk anyway?” Oh right, that was me . All these words can start to present several challenges when it comes to sleep.

Your toddler’s world is exploding

Let’s talk about what is happening in your toddler’s brain.  While there is a lot that is happening for your toddler to allow him or her to be able to walk, run, play, talk and engage with their environment, there is a lot that isn’t really fully developed.  The fastest rate of brain development for children happens between ages 0 and 3.  Their brains are literally exploding with development.  Noises, objects and interactions are all new and exciting for your toddler. Imagination takes off.  Toddler brains are working so hard to understand all of the things going on around them that they don’t take kindly to disruptions in things that are familiar or routines.  Speech ability, emotional awareness, body control, empathy and logical reasoning are all controlled by the prefrontal cortex.  This part of the bran is not fully developed in toddlers.  So despite the fact that your child may have all sorts of words to communicate with you, rational thought is not an effective tool when attempting to reason with your toddler.  You child simply doesn’t have the advanced cognition to understand what you may be trying your hardest to communicate.  All of this leads to several of the sleep struggles I often find the families with whom I work dealing with. 

Increased verbal skills

I often find that parents get very tripped up by how verbal their 2 year old may be and attempt to rationalize with them either at bedtime or at a night waking. Parents will describe to their toddler how their body needs sleep to be healthy and doesn’t it feel good to wake up and be well rested? None of this means ANYTHING to your toddler or at least it isn’t all that influential. Remember that lack of rational thought? None of your well thought out arguments are going to be all that useful with your toddler. The big sleep challenges that I find parents of 2 year olds encounter are bedtime stalling, last minute requests/call backs, insisting that a parent stay while their child is going to sleep and nap boycotts. Check out the next articles for all of these topics.