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

#### Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Language Development and Communication (LDC)

#### Subdomain: Learning to Communicate

#### Goal: Children ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

#### Skill Progression: Answers questions

#### Age: 15-18 Months

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### Responds to requests for clarification (e.g., “huh,” “what?”)

Situations for Observation of Skill

Observe the infant in interactions with others.

Elicitation Strategy

No elicitation needed.

Behavior Observed

Because speech is developing, the child’s language is not always clear. When adults request clarification, the child repeats the attempted word.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Children are beginning to use words, but the words are not always intelligible. Help early childhood educators and parents get clarification by getting eye contact with the child, shrugging, and asking, “What?” This teaches the child about the need for repetition. When the child repeats the word, the adult needs to acknowledge this. “Thank you.” If the communication is still not understood, the adult then picks up the child and says, “Show me,” while following the child’s point.

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/.