North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

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

Subdomain: Developing a Sense of Self with Others

Goal: Children form relationships and interact positively with other children

Skill Progression: Positive social interactions

Age: 36-42 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 36-42 Months.

Silly boisterous play with peers; demonstrates preference for play partners

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe children playing together. Add music to stimulate movement and singing.

Elicitation Strategy

If no play occurs, suggest a song and dance scenario to make people happy.

Behavior Observed

The child acts silly to get other children to laugh. Laughter is the goal.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Although many early childhood educators and parents discourage silly play, it is actually a natural way for children to build social skills. They take turns trying to make each other laugh. Encourage adults to not only tolerate but participate in the fun!

 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/.