## 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 small muscle control and hand-eye coordination to manipulate objects and work with tools.

#### Skill Progression: Reach/Grasp/Release

#### Age: 18-21 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 18-21 Months.

### Release: Releases objects according to size and shape of container

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the child with various size toys and containers. For example, tiny objects with a toilet paper tube, ping pong balls with a small bucket, and a large ball with a laundry basket.

Elicitation Strategy

The adult prompts the child to put each ball in the right container.

Behavior Observed

The infant uses one or two hands as needed, grasps the objects appropriately, and reaches the right distance to make an accurate drop.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage early childhood educators and parents to involve children in putting things away. Provide examples of how parents can organize toys and materials in different containers. This not only teaches matching sizes, it helps children learn self-help skills.

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/.