List of Skills by Age
1-2 Months
2-4 Months
Uses mouthing, reaching, grasping, and kicking to explore objects
4-6 Months
Uses fingers to explore and grasp
6-8 Months
Examines things from different perspectives to explore size, shape, texture, sound, etc.
8-10 Months
Uses hands and fingers to try to put things together
10-12 Months
12-15 Months
Puts objects on top of each other
15-18 Months
Uses a variety of objects together in different ways in trial-and-error
18-21 Months
Uses real and pretend objects together functionally
21-24 Months
Uses tools to solve a problem (a fork to stab a bite, a hammer to pound, sifter, funnel)
24-27 Months
Experiments with putting things together and taking them apart
27-30 Months
Investigates how to manipulate things by tearing, stretching, unwrapping, etc.
30-33 Months
Interconnects parts to construct a simple 4-5-piece puzzle, nest objects, etc.
33-36 Months
Uses household objects (pillows, blankets, boxes) to create spaces to explore
36-42 Months
Constructs enclosures of different sizes in dramatic play
42-48 Months
Combines blocks or 8-12 puzzle pieces to make a representation
48-54 Months
Attends to more than one characteristic (shape and color, color and size, texture and color, etc.)
54-60 Months
Understands orientation of objects, letters and pictures as an important characteristic
 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/.