North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Health and Physical Development (HPD)

Subdomain: Motor Development

Goal: Children develop small muscle control and hand-eye coordination to manipulate objects and work with tools.

Skill Progression: Drawing

Age: 21-24 Months

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Makes large continuous circular scribbles, with occasional straight lines

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child with paper and a crayon or marker, first spontaneously, then after watching an adult.

Elicitation Strategy

Give the child markers or crayons and paper on a small table. Let the child mark on the paper independently. Draw balloons with strings along with the child.

Behavior Observed

Children prefer circular marks. They stabilize the paper with one hand and make marks with the other, moving their whole arm.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage parents to give children a place and time to draw. Children will say their scribbles represent a drawing. Early childhood educators and parents can ask what the child is making and make their own drawing. Draw alongside of the child. Provide models for drawing the sun, sun rays, moon, flowers, road signs, grass, etc.

 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/.