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

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

#### Subdomain: Construction of Knowledge: Thinking and Reasoning

#### Goal: Children demonstrate the ability to think about their own thinking: reasoning, taking perspectives, and making decisions

#### Skill Progression: Making decisions

#### Age: 6-8 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 6-8 Months.

### Shows attentional preferences when given a choice between two objects

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the infant during daily routines, such as dressing, meals, and play.

Elicitation Strategy

During daily routines, encourage the adult to hold up two items and ask the child which of the two items he wants.

Behavior Observed

The child will reach for his preference, whether it is a toy, food, or clothing.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Giving a child choices early in life is important, as the child will learn that he can make decisions among limited options. Help parents understand that doing this early can help avoid conflicts later on. Just two choices are appropriate at this age.

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/.