## 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 the large muscle control and abilities needed to move through and explore their environment.

#### Skill Progression: Ball skills

#### Age: 21-24 Months

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

### Catches a large ball that is close with arms straight out

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child interacting with a ball.

Elicitation Strategy

The adult gets the child’s attention and gives the child time to prepare by saying; “Catch!” then gently throws the ball to the child.

Behavior Observed

The child catches with straight arms.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

At this age, balls become a challenge. Children want to demonstrate their skills with catching, throwing and kicking. Turn taking with the adult is an important social activity and balls provide a perfect reason to take turns. Remind early childhood educators and parents that children of this age need large, soft balls and a close target. Too much distance will discourage them from trying.

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/.