List of Skills by Age
1-2 Months
Stares at faces and surroundings for long periods of time
2-4 Months
Repeats own pleasurable actions (kicking, waving arm)
4-6 Months
Repeats newly learned activities
6-8 Months
Persists to get a desired toy and explores for several minutes to learn characteristics
8-10 Months
Becomes task-directed with objects and pokes, pushes and pulls to get a result
10-12 Months
Persists to find the means to get the desired result and experiments with different options
12-15 Months
Persists in accomplishing complex tasks with support from adult
15-18 Months
Pushes for autonomy and persists with tasks of moderate difficulty
18-21 Months
Sets a standard to evaluate success of actions for self (what is good enough)
21-24 Months
Looks at books, plays, or performs preferred actions independently for several minutes
24-27 Months
Talks about what he “knows” and “thinks” about the world
27-30 Months
Desires to do things by himself such as tearing, unwrapping and putting things together
30-33 Months
Talks about how to solve a problem while doing it (verbal mediation)
33-36 Months
36-42 Months
Persists to combine things in unique ways to create imaginative representations
42-48 Months
Self-initiates, plans, and organizes problem solving without assistance
48-54 Months
Persists to create productions from clay, sand, paper, blocks, etc.
54-60 Months
Creates own complex socio-dramatic play themes, scenarios, and props with great attention to detail
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/.