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: Recognizing number and subitizing

Age: 18-21 Months

You may choose a different domain, go back, or click on a skill below for more information.

Looks at two sets of items with a large difference in amount and knows which has more

Situations for Observation of Skill

During play or snack the adult presents two plates or trays with widely varying amounts.

Elicitation Strategy

Ask the child which tray has more, or say, “I want the one with more crackers, please.”

Behavior Observed

The child can differentiate two discrepant amounts and understand which has more.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Help parents learn how to observe their child’s growing understanding of numbers. Through simple observation, listening to the child’s use of number words, and prompting use of number words with requests. Understanding what the child knows helps parents think of what they can do to consolidate or “bump up” their child’s knowledge.

 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/.