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 demonstrate the ability to think about their own thinking: reasoning, taking perspectives, and making decisions

Skill Progression: Thinking and reasoning

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List of Skills by Age

1-2 Months

Repeats pleasurable self-directed actions

2-4 Months

Begins play with sound toys

4-6 Months

Displays laughter in social play, particularly with physical stimulation

6-8 Months

Inspects objects for a long time

8-10 Months

Sustains interest in looking at pictures

10-12 Months

Knows how to get objects to do what he wants

12-15 Months

Names pictures in books

15-18 Months

Reflects thinking in problem solving with toys

18-21 Months

Play begins to reflect thoughts and feelings

21-24 Months

Verbally describes basic emotions and desires

24-27 Months

Use the word “pretend” when doing dramatic play

27-30 Months

Uses the words “think,” and “know” to express understanding of something

30-33 Months

Talks to self about how to solve a problem

33-36 Months

Attends to key aspects of an object or situation to figure out how to work it or solve the problem

36-42 Months

Asks about how things work and why things are done in a specific way

42-48 Months

Describes how and why things work or are done

48-54 Months

Describes reasons for feelings and beliefs

54-60 Months

Describes her plan, and what she is going to do in a logical sequence

 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/.