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

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

#### Subdomain: Self-Care

#### Goal: Children develop independence in caring for themselves and their environment.

#### Skill Progression: Eating/drinking

#### Age: 24-27 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 24-27 Months.

### Uses tongue to clear area between gums and cheek

Situations for Observation of Skill

Interview the adult about the child’s eating habits. Observe the child during snack. Watch the movement of the tongue in the cheeks.

Elicitation Strategy

Ask the adult to give examples of breads, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and meats the child eats. Ask the adult to give examples of the child’s preferred foods. Give the child a solid snack that needs chewing, such as a small sandwich.

Behavior Observed

The child uses his tongue to get food up between the cheek and gums.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage parents to provide a variety of foods with many different textures. Children need to experience thin liquids, thick purees, soft, mushy, hard, and chewy foods. All require different types of jaw, tongue, and lip movements and pressure.

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/.