## 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 identify and use common shapes and concepts about position during play and other activities.

#### Skill Progression: Composes geometric shapes

#### Age: 27-30 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 27-30 Months.

### Prefers whole items, does not recognize pieces make a whole (gets upset if a cookie is broken)

Situations for Observation of Skill

During snack time the adult can offer a cookie or cracker.

Elicitation Strategy

Ask the child if he wants a cookie (unless cookies are off limits, then a cracker). Present the cookie in broken pieces.

Behavior Observed

Most children will be upset that the cookie is broken and not whole.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Explain to parents why their child may be upset if items are not whole. They cannot envision the pieces together to make a whole. This may be seen when highly desired items are not whole, such as cookies or birthday cakes.

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/.