North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Cognitive Development (CD)

Subdomain: Mathematical Thinking and Expression

Goal: Children identify and use common shapes and concepts about position during play and other activities.

Skill Progression: Composes geometric shapes

Age: 21-24 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 21-24 Months.

Puts together a jigsaw puzzle of 2-3 pieces, demonstrating understanding of combining segments to make a picture

Situations for Observation of Skill

Have simple picture puzzles of 2-3 pieces. (These type of puzzles may also be found online).

Elicitation Strategy

Place the puzzle out so the child can see the completed picture, then dump the pieces out. No elicitation should be needed.

Behavior Observed

The child will move, shift, and turn pieces to fit them together.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

As children become more able to see part-to-whole relationships, match shapes and colors, they begin to like jigsaw puzzles, which combine all of these. Parents can find inexpensive ones at dollar stores or garage sales.

 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/.