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

Goal: Children express positive feelings about themselves and confidence in what they can do.

Skill Progression: Expresses confidence in abilities and persistence toward goals

Age: 4-6 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 4-6 Months.

Repeats newly learned activities

Situations for Observation of Skill

Place objects that can be activated by swiping or kicking within reach.

Elicitation Strategy

No elicitation needed.

Behavior Observed

In addition to smiling, the infant repeats the action to see if it will recur.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Learning at this age involves discovering that actions can have a result—crying brings an adult, swiping something causes movement or noise, etc. Help early childhood educators and parents understand that responding to the child’s vocalizations or crying helps the child learn to communicate. Setting up situations for the baby to cause something to happen motivates them to move.

 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/.