North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Emotional and Social Development (ESD)

Subdomain: Learning About Feelings

Goal: Children recognize and respond to the needs and feelings of others.

Skill Progression: Recognizes and responds to needs and feelings of others

Age: 1-2 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 1-2 Months.

Shows distress at the cry of another infant; Imitates simple expressions

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe child in situation where other babies may be crying.

Elicitation Strategy

Make faces to the infant, such as opening the mouth or sticking out the tongue.

Behavior Observed

The infant reflects the behavior of other infants with crying contagion. The child imitates others’ expressions.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Help parents understand that imitation is a way children learn about themselves and others. Encourage them to do face-to-face play. Even tiny babies can imitate moves during this type of play. This play also helps the infants focus on the mouth, an important precursor for learning to imitate sounds.

 North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2015

©2015 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.