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: Drama

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List of Skills by Age

1-2 Months

No observable skills

2-4 Months

No observable skills

4-6 Months

No observable skills

6-8 Months

No observable skills

8-10 Months

Shows affection to dolls

10-12 Months

Pretends to feed and bathe baby

12-15 Months

Cares for doll (i.e. puts to bed, feeds, etc.)

15-18 Months

Pretends to sleep, eat, talk on phone (Auto-symbolic play)

18-21 Months

Uses objects symbolically in dramatic play (pretends a block is food)

21-24 Months

Dramatizes remembered events, and directs dramatic play to self, doll, and/or adult

24-27 Months

Dramatizes different roles in familiar routines, up to three steps

27-30 Months

Begins fantasy dramatic play; uses dolls or action figures to “perform” sequences and talk to each other and interact

30-33 Months

Dresses up for role play

33-36 Months

Acts out dramatic play with others playing roles (mommy, baby)

36-42 Months

Develops a theme in dramatic play (doctor, waitress)

42-48 Months

Begins coordinated, complex dramatic play among several peers

Acts out simple stories

48-54 Months

Acts out feelings of characters in dramatic play (fear, anger, sadness, etc.) with fantasy characters, super heroes, etc.

54-60 Months

Discusses and negotiates roles, actions, and dialogue with other players in dramatizations

 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/.