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

#### Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Health and Physical Development (HPD)

#### Subdomain: Motor Development

#### Goal: Children develop small muscle control and hand-eye coordination to manipulate objects and work with tools.

#### Skill Progression: Reach/Grasp/Release

#### Age: 2-4 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 2-4 Months.

### Release: Involuntary release after holding

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the infant on his back.

Elicitation Strategy

Hold a small interesting object a short distance above the infant and wait for him to reach for it.

Behavior Observed

Release occurs when the child involuntarily opens his hand.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Parents may want to put a rattle in the infant’s hand and shake it for them. Encourage parents to provide “just a little” challenge for the infant, by holding objects a short distance away. By holding objects in different orientations at different times, the infant learns to track objects and adjust his reach.

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/.