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: 8-10 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 8-10 Months.

Shows interest and curiosity about the natural world by exploring characteristics of items in nature

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child in the back yard or a park. Take along some familiar objects and toys.

Elicitation Strategy

Demonstrate dropping things in water or sand.

Behavior Observed

When asked, “Do you want your…” the child will look toward the object.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage parents to spend time with the child exploring the outdoors. There are so many sensory experiences, including smells, textures, and sounds of nature for the child to enjoy and learn about. Instill in parents the importance of sensory exploration and learning about seeing what happens when you dig in sand, throw rocks in the water, blow on a dandelion, and so on. These are fun experiences for the whole family.

 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/.