North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Language Development and Communication (LDC)

Subdomain: Foundations for Reading

Goal: Children develop book knowledge and print awareness.

Skill Progression: Develop book knowledge and print awareness

Age: 18-21 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 18-21 Months.

Notices print rather than just pictures in a book; may point to labels under pictures

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child as the adult reads to the child.

Elicitation Strategy

When the adult is reading, he points to the print as he reads. On a page with pictures and labels underneath, (e.g., a picture of an apple with the word apple underneath) ask the child to show you where it says, “Apple.”

Behavior Observed

The child demonstrates awareness that print tells the adult what to read. The child may point to the print for the adult to read.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Early childhood educators and parents can help children learn that print represents words that are said. Encourage adults to follow the print with their fingers as they read. This helps children connect the process of reading with the print on the page.

 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/.