List of Skills by Age
1-2 Months
Follows moving object with eyes (within close distance), though not smoothly
2-4 Months
Reacts to disappearance of moving object by staring at place object disappeared
4-6 Months
Recognizes objects even when seen from different perspectives
Distinguishes near and far objects (reaches for near)
6-8 Months
Finds an hidden object if observes it being hidden
8-10 Months
Finds a hidden object, even if it was previously hidden elsewhere
Aware of vertical space, drops things
Aware of vertical space, fears heights
10-12 Months
Adjusts grasp and reach to size and distance
Unwraps and finds hidden toys under and in cloths, continues to search if not found the first try
12-15 Months
Makes a detour to get to an object
Shifts body weight to walk on sloped surface
15-18 Months
Gets an object from another room
Turns a familiar picture or book right-side up
18-21 Months
Knows locations (there, here) and puts things where they belong
Stacks 4 small blocks (interest in building tall tower)
21-24 Months
Stacks 6 small blocks (interested in stacking many so they won’t fall)
Imitates drawing horizontal, vertical lines, and circular shapes in sand, etc.
24-27 Months
Identifies where the rooms are at home
27-30 Months
Begins building vertically and horizontally together with blocks
Knows words indicating spatial understanding (outdoors, upstairs)
Knows directional word (including up, down, out, in, over, under) with regard to movement
30-33 Months
Attempts to imitate building a bridge with blocks
Knows near/far and uses question, “Where is…”
33-36 Months
Finds objects based on the location of landmarks (e.g., your hat is on the kitchen chair)
36-42 Months
Builds with blocks in all directions with the intent of make a representation of something
42-48 Months
Learns a simple route from a map placed in direct relation to the child’s space
48-54 Months
Uses positional words (behind, in front of, beside) to describe the location of an object
54-60 Months
Creates a map using toy objects to recreate a space such as the classroom
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/.