North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Health and Physical Development (HPD)

Subdomain: Motor Development

Goal: Children develop the large muscle control and abilities needed to move through and explore their environment.

Skill Progression: Sitting

Age: 2-4 Months

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

Holds head in line with body when pulled to sit

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the infant when the adult pulls the child from supine to sit.

Elicitation Strategy

Lay the infant on his back. Take the infant’s shoulders and arms and pull the infant into sit.

Behavior Observed

The infant’s neck is stronger and now keeps the head in line with the body when pulled against gravity.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Parents often rely on car seats or other infant seats to support the infant. These provide ease of care, but do not require the infant to use her neck, back, and other large muscles. Tell parents to use daily activities, such as diapering as a time to pull the baby into sit. Let them know how this helps the baby work the neck muscles.

 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/.