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

#### Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Emotional and Social Development (ESD)

#### Subdomain: Developing a Sense of Self with Others

#### Goal: Children demonstrate the social and behavioral skills needed to successfully participate in groups.

#### Skill Progression: Social awareness and conscience

#### Age: 18-21 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 18-21 Months.

### Beginning to respond to others feelings

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the infant when feelings are being demonstrated or enacted by others.

Elicitation Strategy

If a natural opportunity does not arise, an adult can pretend to be hurt or sad.

Behavior Observed

Watch for a mirrored affect in the child. The child may also stop and just stare to determine what the adult is doing or feeling.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Explain the importance of giving clear facial and verbal expression for emotions. Children start to experience empathy by reading the adult’s cues and reflecting feelings back. Early childhood educators and parents should verbalize both their own and the child’s emotions so she learns the labels for feelings.

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/.