## 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 compare, sort, group, organize and measure objects and create patterns in their everyday environment.

#### Skill Progression: Patterning

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List of Skills by Age

1-2 Months

Prefers large, bold patterns to plain pictures

Sensitive to strong contrast

2-4 Months

Prefers patterns with finer details

Begins to perceive overall pattern structure

Recognizes meaning of familiar patterns (faces)

4-6 Months

Anticipates movement patterns

Responds to rhythmic music

Recognizes objects by the shape pattern (bottle, cup, ball)

6-8 Months

Recognizes objects and people based on sensory characteristics

8-10 Months

Begins to perceive emotional expressions at meaningful patterns

10-12 Months

Determines what the whole image is based on seeing part of the image

12-15 Months

Aware of time sequences or activity sequences (i.e. night followed by day; socks on before shoes)

Notices patterns in carpets, shirts, etc. with pointing or words

15-18 Months

Imitates patterns of movement and singing

18-21 Months

Copies patterns using sounds or physical movements, with adult prompting and guidance

21-24 Months

Notices attributes and calls them a “pattern” even if not a pattern

24-27 Months

Tries to imitate songs and finger plays, dance moves, and rhythms with instruments

27-30 Months

Makes up simple non-repeating patterns with blocks, beads of different shapes or colors

30-33 Months

Makes spatial designs with blocks or shapes

33-36 Months

Notices simple repeat patterns (short, long, short, long) in block set

Recognizes a simple pattern with one different attribute

36-42 Months

Compares shapes and makes patterns

Recognizes simple pictures made with shapes (square and triangle look like a house)

Knows sequence of daily events

42-48 Months

Copies simple repeating patterns

Recognizes a simple pattern (two different attributes)

Duplicates an ABAB pattern, but may need to create it next to the original

Fills in a missing element of a pattern

48-54 Months

Recognizes a simple pattern (three different attributes)

Duplicates simple patterns seen at a distance

Creates original patterns in art work

Extends a pattern (ABBAABBA)

54-60 Months

Extends a simple pattern by adding a new pattern set

Recognizes that adding “1” is a pattern and adding “2” is a another pattern, whether with objects or 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/.