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 small muscle control and hand-eye coordination to manipulate objects and work with tools.

Skill Progression: Reach/Grasp/Release

Age: 4-6 Months

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

Grasp: Palmer grasp, with fingers on top surface of object, object pressed into palm; later, fingers on far side of object press it against the thumb and side of palm

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the infant playing with a small object such as a block or toy animal.

Elicitation Strategy

No elicitation needed.

Behavior Observed

In the early stage of this range, the infant demonstrates a palmer grasp. As the child matures, the object moves from the palm toward the thumb-side of the palm and the thumb is actively involved in the grasp.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Explain to early childhood educators and parents the development of grasp, from the little finger side of the palm to the thumb-side and from the palm to the fingers to the thumb and forefinger. It is fun for early childhood educators and parents to watch this trajectory evolve over time.

 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/.