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

#### Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Cognitive Development (CD)

#### Subdomain: Mathematical Thinking and Expression

#### Goal: Children compare, sort, group, organize and measure objects and create patterns in their everyday environment.

#### Skill Progression: Classifying

#### Age: 21-24 Months

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

### Demonstrates knowledge of basic-level categories (plants, animals, people)

Situations for Observation of Skill

Look at a picture dictionary book for toddlers with the child.

Elicitation Strategy

As you look at the pictures talk about them. Say, “I see an animal on this page. Do you?” “I see a plant. Can you find it?” “I see something round like this on the page? Where is it?” Tell the child to ask you questions as well. (They will say, “Where is the flower?”) Take turns asking questions to make it a game.

Behavior Observed

The child should identify basic categories.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage early childhood educators and parents to talk about basic characteristics of shape, size, and color as they discuss things in the environment. “Look at this rock. It is round.”

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/.