## 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: Composing and decomposing number

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List of Skills by Age

1-2 Months

Although research exists for documenting number sense in the first year of life. These are laboratory studies that cannot be replicated in home visits or centers. For this reason, skills the first year of life have been omitted.

2-4 Months

Although research exists for documenting number sense in the first year of life. These are laboratory studies that cannot be replicated in home visits or centers. For this reason, skills the first year of life have been omitted.

4-6 Months

Although research exists for documenting number sense in the first year of life. These are laboratory studies that cannot be replicated in home visits or centers. For this reason, skills the first year of life have been omitted.

6-8 Months

Although research exists for documenting number sense in the first year of life. These are laboratory studies that cannot be replicated in home visits or centers. For this reason, skills the first year of life have been omitted.

8-10 Months

Although research exists for documenting number sense in the first year of life. These are laboratory studies that cannot be replicated in home visits or centers. For this reason, skills the first year of life have been omitted.

10-12 Months

Although research exists for documenting number sense in the first year of life. These are laboratory studies that cannot be replicated in home visits or centers. For this reason, skills the first year of life have been omitted.

12-15 Months

No observable skills

15-18 Months

No observable skills

18-21 Months

No observable skills

21-24 Months

No observable skills

24-27 Months

No observable skills

27-30 Months

No observable skills

30-33 Months

Examines a group of up to four items and creates another group of the same amount

33-36 Months

Combines or takes away from a set to make a set of up to three objects

Mentally thinks that if you give him one more he’ll have two; and if he has two items and you take one away he’ll have one left

36-42 Months

Uses graphics to add small numbers by drawing pictures, then counting up to 3 items

42-48 Months

Adds up to two sets of objects up to 5

Uses graphics to add and subtract small numbers

Write numbers

48-54 Months

Counts all in two number sets by adding on from the first set

54-60 Months

Breaks up a total number of objects in many different combinations to make the whole set (up to 10)

Adds up the total of two same or different sets of objects up to as high as the child can count

Compares sets of objects to find the difference in amount

Solves take-away problems by separating a set of concrete objects from the total amount and counting the remainder

Finds how many objects need to be added to a set to get a specific total

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/.