Early Learning Progressions

North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

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

Subdomain: Creative Expression

Goal: Children demonstrate self-expression and creativity in a variety of forms and contexts, including play, visual arts, music, drama, and dance.

Skill Progression: Music/dance

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List of Skills by Age

1-2 Months

Calms to rhythmic movement, sounds, and music

2-4 Months

Produces vocalizations and shakes sound toys

4-6 Months

Makes vowel sounds and early consonants

6-8 Months

Body moves to rhythm

Babbles rhythmically

8-10 Months

"Dances” to music in sitting or standing

Produces jargon with intonation

10-12 Months

Bounces to rhythm while standing

Vocalizes to music and tries to sing

12-15 Months

Actually dances with weight-shifting, not just bouncing

15-18 Months

Dances in different directions and in circles

18-21 Months

Listens to music, sings and dances

Discriminates loud and soft sounds

21-24 Months

Rocks and sings to dolls

24-27 Months

Engages in “music babble” as he sings and dances

27-30 Months

Experiments with different types of movements

Makes wild swings and kicks with arms and legs to tempo (fast/slow); dances on toes

30-33 Months

Remembers songs and finger plays

Imitates adults’ actions and movements

33-36 Months

Pretends to be something with movements, such as falling leaf, snow flake, cloud, flower, etc.

36-42 Months

Dances and sings to familiar music

Spontaneously creates rhythms

42-48 Months

Creates silly songs and dances

Tries to imitate rhythms

48-54 Months

Dances and sings for others

Combines movements to create a novel dance

54-60 Months

Dance movements are precise and coordinated

Includes music and dance in dramatic play or performance

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/.