## North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

#### Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Language Development and Communication (LDC)

#### Subdomain: Learning to Communicate

#### Goal: Children participate in conversations with peers and adults in one-on-one, small, and larger group interactions.

#### Skill Progression: Participate in conversations with peers and adults

#### Age: 21-24 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 21-24 Months.

### Takes 1-to-2 turns in conversation

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child in solitary play and in play interactions with others and/or during daily routines with the adult.

Elicitation Strategy

No elicitation needed.

Behavior Observed

The child initiates a conversation (e.g. “See my baby”) and takes one or two turns in a conversation (e.g., “Child: “My baby hungry.” Adult: “She needs her bottle.” Child: (while holding bottle) “Eat baby.” Adult: “She’s happy now.” Child: “Baby happy now.”)

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage parents to talk to the child in the car, when reading books, at lunch and dinner, during playtime, etc. Too often early childhood educators and parents do not carry on conversations; rather they give directions, ask questions, and merely comment on the child’s current activity. Encourage adults to initiate conversations with the child about her activities and family. For example, talk about the food being eaten, the actions she is doing, what she did before eating, and what will happen after the meal. Give the child time to take a turn in the conversation.

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/.