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

#### Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Cognitive Development (CD)

#### Subdomain: Construction of Knowledge: Thinking and Reasoning

#### Goal: Children demonstrate the ability to think about their own thinking: reasoning, taking perspectives, and making decisions

#### Skill Progression: Making decisions

#### Age: 30-33 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 30-33 Months.

### Determines what he is good at; preferences begin to strengthen

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child’s play preferences during the day. Read a book about a character trying to learn how to do things. Discuss what the character can do well and what the character can’t do.

Elicitation Strategy

No elicitation needed for observation of play preferences. After reading the book, talk about what the child likes to do and is good at.

Behavior Observed

Note what the child chooses to do and compare that to what the child verbally describes as things they do well.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Explain to parents that children typically select types of play that they enjoy the most. And, what the child enjoys most is typically something about which they feel competent. So observing preferences provides a clue into the reasons for the child’s choices. Early childhood educators and parents can build on the child’s preferences and also encourage him to expand his play activities to try new things.

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/.