North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

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

Subdomain: Self-Care

Goal: Children develop independence in caring for themselves and their environment.

Skill Progression: Eating/drinking

Age: 4-6 Months

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

Develops a suck-swallow pattern

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the infant drinking and eating.

Elicitation Strategy

Have the adult nurse or give the baby a bottle.

Behavior Observed

The infant has a clearly established pattern for sucking and swallowing.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

The infant is gaining some control over oral musculature. Her jaw and tongue are moved to adapt to different types of input. Parents can introduce purees and soft food that quickly breaks down in the infant’s mouth. Introducing different textures to expand the infant’s tolerance.

 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/.