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

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

#### Subdomain: Foundations for Writing

#### Goal: Children use writing and other symbols to record information and communicate for a variety of purposes.

#### Skill Progression: Use writing and other symbols to record information and communicate for a variety of purposes

#### Age: 21-24 Months

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

### Imitates vertical strokes

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child with paper and a crayon or marker, first spontaneously, then after watching an adult.

Elicitation Strategy

The adult then models drawing a straight vertical stroke, making a “road” or a “ziipp!” sound to interest the child in the movement.

Behavior Observed

After observing the adult make a straight line, the child imitates this action.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage parents to give the child a place and time to draw. The child will say his scribbles represent a drawing. Early childhood educators and parents can ask what the child is making and make their own drawing. Draw alongside of the child. Demonstrate how to make a vertical line for a road, then drive a small car down the road. The child will want to make a road too. This type of imitation will prompt the child to try making different directional strokes.

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/.