North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Cognitive Development (CD)

Subdomain: Construction of Knowledge: Thinking and Reasoning

Goal: Children recall information and use it for new situations and problems

Skill Progression: Recalls and uses information for problem solving

You may choose a different domain, visit the page for this domain, or click on a skill below for more information.

List of Skills by Age


1-2 Months

Stares longer at familiar faces than objects


2-4 Months

Shows physical excitement at familiar faces and events (feeding, diapering)


4-6 Months

Remembers how to activate familiar toys


6-8 Months

Recognizes people and objects based on sensory characteristics (favored blanket, toy, food)


8-10 Months

Remembers simple games (peek-a-boo, patty cake) and actions to apply to a toy or object


10-12 Months

Remembers a strategy that worked on one object and tries it on another

Remembers label for an object without the object being present


12-15 Months

Performs deferred imitation of actions of others (adults, siblings, peers)


15-18 Months

Recognizes and identifies familiar places and pictures of objects and people by pointing


18-21 Months

Attempts to tell about remembered experiences using words, jargon, and gestures

Remembers action sequences with objects


21-24 Months

Demonstrates long-term memory for experiences up to six months previous

Dramatizes remembered events


24-27 Months

Recognizes familiar signs, books


27-30 Months

Fills in missing words in familiar books, songs, rhymes, etc.


30-33 Months

Remembers visual landmarks and anticipates the intended destination


33-36 Months

Remembers finger plays and acts out sequences in dramatic play

Remembers events up to 18 months in the past


36-42 Months

Dramatizes favorite stories and events

Remembers one of several objects shown and then hidden


42-48 Months

Recalls 1-2 characters and events in a story that was recently read

Describes familiar objects without seeing them


48-54 Months

Determines what is missing from pictures, puzzles, and toys

Recalls 3-4 elements of a story without prompts


54-60 Months

Gives detailed descriptions of past events, stories, movies, etc.

Remembers sequences of words and numbers

 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/.