Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Cognitive Development (CD)

Subdomain: Construction of Knowledge: Thinking and Reasoning

Goal: Children recall information and use it for new situations and problems

Skill Progression: Recalls and uses information for problem solving

Age: 12-15 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 12-15 Months.

Watch the infant with real or pretend household objects, such as a vacuum, sponge, hairbrush, tissues, kitchen utensils, etc.

No elicitation needed. Deferred imitation requires seeing the child imitate something they have seen in the past. Have props or real items for the child to play with.

The child will perform the actions with the objects that they have seen others do (e.g., move the toy vacuum back and forth, wipe the table or dishes with a sponge, etc.).

Encourage parents to involve their toddlers in daily chores to teach them the functions of objects, the actions sequences needed, and to build helping behaviors. Toddlers can have their own sponge, brush, or plastic kitchen utensils and “work” alongside the parent. Early childhood educators and parents will then observe the child re-creating these actions later in play. Let parents know these re-creations indicate a type of memory for actions that will be needed in learning skills as they get older.