List of Skills by Age
1-2 Months
2-4 Months
4-6 Months
Recognizes familiar objects and people
6-8 Months
Helps adult turn pages by pushing them to the left, after the adult has separated a page
8-10 Months
Examines pictures when items are pointed to
Gestures to indicate desire to read a book again
Sits on adult’s lap and attends to several books in a row
10-12 Months
Turns pages (maybe more than one at a time)
12-15 Months
Sustains interest in named pictures for 2-5 minutes
Uses “book babble” (jargon sounds like reading)
Searches for favorite pictures in a book
15-18 Months
Carries a book around while walking
Holds a book open to look at it independently
Gets a book and gives it to the adult to read
18-21 Months
Points to pictures and says, “What’s that?”
Manipulates a variety of interactive books
“Reads” a book independently for several minutes
21-24 Months
Engages in reading behavior by verbalizing while looking at pictures
May use books as a transitional object
24-27 Months
Protests when adult misreads a word in a familiar book; offers correct word
Recites whole phrases from favorite stories
27-30 Months
Recites text from a familiar predictable book
Requests adult read the same book repeatedly
30-33 Months
Tells what the story is about based on the picture
Coordinates text read (words) with pictures (e.g., finds aspects of text in the pictures)
33-36 Months
Asks questions about the pictures, vocabulary, and story
36-42 Months
Tells story when looking at a familiar book
42-48 Months
Understands relationship between related pictures
48-54 Months
Talks about favorite books with peers
Asks questions and comments on a book indicating understanding and interest in a topic or event
54-60 Months
Asks adult to buy or check out specific topics, books, or authors
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/.