North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

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

Subdomain: Construction of Knowledge: Thinking and Reasoning

Goal: Children use their senses to construct knowledge about the world around them

Skill Progression: Constructs knowledge

Age: 2-4 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 2-4 Months.

Uses mouthing, reaching, grasping, and kicking to explore objects

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the infant with a mobile and/or toys that are placed slightly above the baby’s head.

Elicitation Strategy

Move the objects to attract the child’s attention. Take the child’s foot to knock the object several times.

Behavior Observed

The infant will reach toward or grasp the objects. The infant will lift his legs to reach the object.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Infants learn they can have an impact on their environment by seeing the effects of their efforts. Hang colorful ribbons, shiny pie tins, or noise-making objects above the child’s crib or floor play area. Hold noise-making toys or objects above the child to encourage reaching and grasping.

 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/.