North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

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

Subdomain: Scientific Exploration and Knowledge

Goal: Children observe and describe characteristics of living things and the physical world

Skill Progression: Observe and describe characteristics of living things and the physical world

Age: 2-4 Months

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

Distinguishes animate (moving) from inanimate

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child looking at stationary and moving objects.

Elicitation Strategy

Present both situations to the child. Hold up a non-moving toy and a toy that has action.

Behavior Observed

The child will show more animation and stare longer at the moving object.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Explain to parents that even at this early age, children are formulating categories of understanding. They can tell the difference between moving and nonmoving objects. This reinforces the importance of parents exposing infants to a variety of types of stimulation as they learn about their world.

 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/.