North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Emotional and Social Development (ESD)

Subdomain: Developing a Sense of Self with Others

Goal: Children form relationships and interact positively with other children

Skill Progression: Positive social interactions

Age: 15-18 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 15-18 Months.

Spontaneously shares toys, food, etc. with others, but conflict over toys is common; imitates peers actions

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the infant when another infant is close by. Have several toys within the infants’ reach.

Elicitation Strategy

No elicitation needed.

Behavior Observed

Infants at this level are possessive of toys, but they also want to interact with peers. They may offer a toy, but then fight over the same toy. They are interested in what peers do and will imitate their actions.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

As the child moves away from early childhood educators and parents and begins to experience an emerging sense of self, the child desires possession of objects. “Mine” causes conflict, but the child still wants to watch, imitate, and interact with peers. Help parents understand the meaning underlying the conflicts and how to help the child by diverting attention, providing alternative toys, or modeling sharing.

 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/.