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Expresses feelings such as fear, anger, and affection
Tells adult she wants to do things herself
Talks about how to solve a problem while doing it (verbal mediation)
Separation may still be stressful, calms with reassurance and distractions
Imitates peers and involves them in activities
Follows rules part of the time
Talks about the emotions of others and the cause of their emotions
Asks for help or redirects self to another activity if frustrated
Walks on tiptoes when dancing or sneaking up on someone
Catches medium-sized ball thrown from distance of 5 feet or more with arms straight out
Climbs up and through playground equipment, such as ramps and slides
Begins walking up stairs without holding on
Walks on a curb without falling off
Skills combined into Manipulation/Tool use
Skills combined into Manipulation/Tool use
Zigzag scribbles are added to loops
Snips with scissors on a line across a 1” strip of heavy paper
Reports drawings represent familiar things
Wipes own hands and mouth with napkin
Boys and girls seat themselves on the toilet with steps and toilet seat
Puts on shirt, socks, and coat
Unties laces and takes off shoes
Chooses clothing for the weather
Boys urinate in the toilet when sitting down
Boys wear training pants or underwear
Boys and girls may tell before having BM
Understands basic spatial words (e.g., in, on, out, off)
Participates in storytelling and book reading with adult
Responds to 33% of questions asked by adults
Understands “What...doing?” questions (e.g., "What is the baby doing?")
Conveys ideas using pitch and intonation
Cluster reduction, cluster of sounds reduced (e.g., peak/speak)
Gliding may occur (substitution of glide /w/ or /y/ for liquid sounds, /r/ or /l/ (e.g., woom/room)
Stopping /th/ (e.g., dis/this)
Converses about people, places, and objects that are not present
Demonstrates awareness that sentences need noun and verb phrases
Produces utterances that describe physical characteristics (“big doggie”)
Produces negative before a verb (“no go”) as well as “no,” “not,” “can’t,” “don’t
Talks using a series of unrelated sentences
Starts a sentence with and, because or so (e.g., “And I runned.”)
Uses to as a preposition to indicate direction toward (“giving it to the baby”)
Produces can, will, be as auxiliary verbs + negative forms (e.g., can’t, won’t, don’t)
Knows directional words (e.g., up, down, out, in); uses differently than location of object
Knows all possessives (yours, ours)
Uses descriptive words (e.g., bad, sleepy, heavy)
Tells what the story is about based on the picture
Coordinates text read (words) with pictures (e.g., finds aspects of text in the pictures)
Asks questions about the story and characters in the book being read
Knows there are picture books, story books, and books about real things
Identifies and imitates sounds in the environment
Claps to syllables in two-to-three syllable names
Repeats alliterative words starting with /f, v, s, z, g, k/ in pairs or sequences
Zigzag scribbles are added to loops
Holds crayon in writing position with fingers and thumb directed toward the paper
Interconnects parts to construct a simple 4-5-piece puzzle, nest objects, etc.
Remembers visual landmarks and anticipates the intended destination
Talks to self about how to solve a problem
Ascribes thoughts and feelings to dolls and action figures
Determines what he is good at; preferences begin to strengthen
Remembers pictures, finger plays, dance moves, songs
Remembers songs and finger plays
Imitates adults’ actions and movements
Tries to draw lines, angles, zigzags
Draws circles to represent everything
May be hesitant or shy around new people; takes time to warm up
Play may reflect sibling or parent-child relationships
Demonstrates preferences for play partners
Chooses playmates of the same race if they are present
Instantly tells how many with groups of 1-3 items
Examines a group of up to four items and creates another group of the same amount
Points to smaller/larger of two objects
Size: Points to smaller/ larger of two objects
Makes spatial designs with blocks or shapes
Matches pictures of similar objects
Matches colors (red, blue, green, yellow)
Stacks rings (or other objects in the correct order)
Identifies familiar objects by feel
Places shapes, even after puzzle board is rotated
Attempts to imitate building a bridge with blocks
Knows near/far and uses question, “Where is…”
Provides descriptions of observations in nature (e.g., squirrelis climbing the tree)
 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/.