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: 4-6 Months

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

Uses shape, size, and color to the tell the difference between objects

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child interacting with a variety of different objects, materials, and toys.

Elicitation Strategy

Present different objects to the child (bottle, small toy, stuffed toy, blanket, etc.)

Behavior Observed

The child will handle and use the toys differently, indicating recognition of the objects and understanding of their different uses.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage early childhood educators and parents to hold up objects two at a time. This encourages the child to compare them and determine which she wants. Explain that by watching the infant’s reactions over time, the adults can discover the child’s preferences.

 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/.