North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Health and Physical Development (HPD)

Subdomain: Motor Development

Goal: Children develop small muscle control and hand-eye coordination to manipulate objects and work with tools.

Skill Progression: Reach/Grasp/Release

Age: 21-24 Months

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

Grasp: Precise tasks use fingertip grasp

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child eating tiny cereal or cracker snacks.

Elicitation Strategy

No elicitation needed.

Behavior Observed

The child now adjusts the grasp to fit the size and shape of an object and how much force is needed for a task. For example, uses a palmer grasp on a toy screw driver versus a pincer grasp on a poker chip.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage early childhood educators and parents to involve children in the daily routines of lifting, carrying, moving, and using different household items. These tasks help children feel helpful, which they love, and also helps them learn to adjust their movements for different tasks.

 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/.