## 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: 21-24 Months

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

### Unwraps food in simple wrapping

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child during snack with a travel cup with a straw and a pudding or applesauce cup with a pull top.

Elicitation Strategy

The adult has an empty water bottle and asks the child to take off the lid to put water in it. (Make sure lid is not on too tight.) Adult starts to pull the lid off the snack cup, then stabilizes it so the child can finish opening it.

Behavior Observed

Pulls the lid off, if it is not on too tight.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

The child is developing the ability to use hands together, use wrist rotation, and lip and tongue movements in eating and drinking skills. These skills make mealtimes neater, faster, and more independent. Use a shorter straw and cup if the child has difficulty sucking up a long straw. Early childhood educators and parents can model using their tongues to clear their lips, so the child will model.

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/.