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 demonstrate the social and behavioral skills needed to successfully participate in groups.

Skill Progression: Social awareness and conscience

Age: 54-60 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 54-60 Months.

Feels the importance of being accepted by friends

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child in a small group activity.

Elicitation Strategy

No elicitation is needed.

Behavior Observed

The child does acts of kindness to try to make friends (e.g., offers a handmade gift, shares a special item from home, offers food, or shares secrets).

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage parents to allow their child to make “friend” gifts, have a sleepover, and go to playdates. Friends are important. Support parents by letting them know that friends complement, they don’t replace, early childhood educators and parents in their hearts.

 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/.