North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

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

Subdomain: Mathematical Thinking and Expression

Goal: Children show understanding of numbers and quantities during play and other activities

Skill Progression: Counting

Age: 21-24 Months

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Counts to two

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child counting with an adult during daily activities.

Elicitation Strategy

If the adult does not spontaneously request counting, ask them to request that the child count something with which they are engaged (e.g., shoes, baby dolls, etc.).

Behavior Observed

The child will count using number words, with accuracy to two or three.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Emphasize the importance of meaningful versus rote counting. Parents often ask their child to perform (“Can you count for me?”). Help them to understand that counting actual objects using pointing helps the child learn the meaning of the 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/.