## 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

#### Goal: Children express positive feelings about themselves and confidence in what they can do.

#### Skill Progression: Expresses and seeks out positive emotions about what they can do

#### Age: 18-21 Months

You may choose a different domain, go back, or click on a skill below for more information.

### Communicates needs, wishes, feelings with words and gestures

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe during daily routines and play activities.

Elicitation Strategy

No elicitation is needed.

Behavior Observed

Understanding one’s own needs, wants, and feelings is an indicator of sense of self. The child uses reaching gestures, signing “more,” or labeling of items (without whining) to indicate needs and wishes. Feelings are shown by facial expression and body language. Verbal and gestural requests and a mostly happy disposition indicate positive feelings about self.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

As the child transitions to using words to communicate, he is often frustrated by not being able to get his message across. Encourage early childhood educators and parents to read nonverbal cues from the child and provide the words they think the child means. The child will feel more confident if he knows his message is getting across.

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/.