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Early Learning Guidelines

Across all five domains

0–9 months

Stage Infants Toddlers Preschool Early elementary
Age 0–9 months 8–16 months 15–24 months 24–36 months 3-year-olds 4-year-olds 5-year-olds 6-year-olds 7-year-olds 8-year-olds
Domain All domains I. Approaches to Learning II. Physical Well-Being, Health and Motor Development III. Social and Emotional Development IV. Communication, Language, and Literacy V. Cognitive Development
Show Both What educators might observe Ways educators might support the child's development
I

Approaches to Learning

A

Curiosity and Interest

Child approaches the world with curiosity and develops knowledge about specific topics.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Will gaze at something that has caught their attention (e.g., a fan, pinwheel, or a mobile)
  • Changes behavior when interested in an object, person, or experience (e.g., by becoming quieter or louder, or by changing facial expressions)
  • Explores educator’s face, hands, or clothing while feeding, by staring and reaching out to touch their features
  • Explores the way objects, such as leaves or applesauce, feel
  • Finds objects and puts them in their mouth
  • Looks at themselves in the mirror and tries reaching their own reflection
B

Initiative

Child pursues their own goals.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Actively explores the environment with their senses
  • Engages familiar adults in interactions (smiling, approaching, gesturing)
  • Rolls or crawls closer to touch an object
  • Reaches for something of interest, such as a caregiver’s glasses or a toy
  • Tries to hold bottle and feed self
II

Physical Well-Being, Health and Motor Development

A

Large Motor Skills

Child uses and coordinates their large muscle groups.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Holds head upright and in middle of body when carried
  • Brings hands together while lying on their back
  • Lies on their back and holds onto their feet
  • Rolls from back to front
  • Rolls from front to back
  • Sits unsupported and reaches for objects
  • Moves from sitting to hands and knees
  • Rocks back and forth on their hands and knees
  • Pulls body forward while on stomach (commando crawl)
B

Small Motor Skills

Child controls the small muscles in their hands and wrists.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Discovers fingers and toes
  • Holds feet in hands or put hands in mouth
  • Opens and closes hands
  • Grips caregiver’s finger or similar object
  • Coordinates hands and eyes when reaching for and holding a toy, such as a rattle
  • Reaches out and pushes ball
  • Picks up an object, such as a rattle , turns it over, and drops it
  • Grasps objects in each hand and bangs them together
C

Sensory Integration

The child uses sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, proprioception (deep pressure), and vestibular function (balance) to perceive and respond to the world around them.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Has a range of vision that is several feet by the age of four months
  • Calms while being held as educator dances, sways, or rocks
  • Tracks objects by moving both eyes together; makes eye contact with educator
  • See objects at a distance by seven months
  • Uses eyes, hands, feet, and mouth together to explore the environment (e.g., picks up an object, looks at it, then mouths it and looks at it again)
  • Hears door closing and looks to see who is coming
  • Falls asleep when moving (e.g., in sling, stroller, or car)
D

Self-Care

Child cares for their physical well-being.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Roots to find nipple
  • Indicates to their family member or caregiver when they want to nurse or eat by using crying, sounds, and gestures
  • Indicates when they are done by turning away from the nipple or bottle
  • Raises legs during diaper changing
  • Responds to educator’s language during caregiving activities by making eye contact and smiling
  • Assists educator in holding their bottle
  • Reaches for family member or educator when wanting to be hugged or held
E

Healthy Sexuality

Child develops a healthy relationship to their body, pleasure, and others. This healthy sense of self is supported and demonstrated through respectful, caring, and loving relationships with families, educators, and other children.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Explores body parts, including their genitals
  • Prefers to be unclothed
  • Looks at body parts on self, others, and in mirror
  • Responds positively to healthy touch from loving adults (e.g., is soothed by massage)
  • Communicates bodily discomfort (e.g., cries during tummy time or gives strong signal that a different position is preferred)
III

Social and Emotional Development

A

Trusting Relationships with Adults

Child develops trusting relationships with nurturing adults.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Quiets when comforted by familiar adult, most of the time
  • Shows preference for familiar educator through facial expressions and gestures (e.g., smiles or laughs)
  • Initiates and maintains interactions with educators (e.g., smiles, gestures, or verbal expression)
  • Cries, makes sounds, or uses body movements to signal caregiver for assistance, attention, or need for comfort
  • Looks for educators’ response in uncertain situations (e.g., when stranger enters the room)
B

Sense of Belonging

Child experiences a sense of belonging in environments that link, extend, and affirm the child’s family and community. Child expresses comfort and joy with human diversity.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Expresses contentment or joy when trusted adult is present
  • Develops cultural identity through daily caregiving interactions, household smell, sounds
  • Babbles a range of sounds and imitates intonation and sounds of the home language(s)
  • Looks more at faces that resemble the faces of familiar, trusted adults
  • May react to and/or interact differently with others who do not resemble their family members and who speak other languages or language variations
C

Sense of Self

Child develops a sense of self through noticing and developing their own interests, preferences, and abilities. Child increasingly develops self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Discovers body parts and explores own body (e.g., observes hands, reaches for toes)
  • Explores the face and other body parts of others (e.g., touches caregivers’ mouth, hair, or hands)
  • Responds with gestures (waves hands, smiles) or vocalizations (squealing) when name is spoken
  • Protests when they do not want to do something (e.g., arches back to avoid sitting in chair)
  • Looks at self in mirror
D

Empathy

Child forms deep, caring, human connections by imagining what someone else may be thinking or feeling and responding with care. Child recognizes unfairness and understands that unfairness hurts.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Smiles when they see a smiling face, especially a familiar one
  • Reacts when someone is sad or upset; this reaction may include startling, eye contact, or becoming upset themselves
  • Observes other’s faces for clues about how they should feel
E

Cooperation and Negotiation

Child navigates friendships with peers through cooperation and negotiation.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Watches babies and other children and imitates their sounds, actions, and motions
  • Shows interest and enjoyment in interaction with other children and adults, as expressed in gestures, facial expressions, and vocalizations such as babbling, exclamations, and laughter
  • Engages in back-and-forth interactions with the educator for short periods of time (e.g., rolling a ball, playing peek-aboo)
  • Makes judgments about others by observing their helpful and unhelpful actions
  • Reaches out to touch other children or the toys they are playing with
F

Emotional Self-Regulation

Child expresses and manages their feelings and impulses.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Signals needs with sounds or motions (e.g., turns head and roots or cries when hungry. or reaches for wanted object of comfort)
  • Relaxes or stops crying when comforted, especially by familiar adult (e.g., when swaddled or spoken to softly)
  • R esponds to emotional cues and social situations (e.g., crying when other babies cry)
  • Smiles, waves, or laughs in response to positive adult interaction
  • Comforts self by clutching, sucking, or stroking when tired or stressed (e.g., calms while stroking or holding soft blanket)
G

Rhythms, Rules, and Routines

Child follows the rhythms, rules, and routines of the learning environment.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Develops increasing consistency in sleeping, waking, and eating patterns
  • Anticipates and participates in routine interactions (e.g., lifts arms toward educator to be picked up)
  • Engages in some regular behaviors (e.g., sings or babbles self to sleep; goes to high chair when hungry)
IV

Communication, Language, and Literacy

A

Speaking

Child will develop the ability to speak and/ or sign in increasingly complete, complex, precise, and varied ways.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Sucks on fingers or pacifiers and moves head and mouth towards milk
  • Laughs and chuckles
  • Cries when hungry, upset, or in need of attention
  • May repeat cooing sounds, such as “ooh” and “ah”
  • Watches caregiver’s mouth closely as they are talking
  • May sign “milk” by hand gesture approximating the opening and closing hand
  • Babbles and may make “p,” “b,” and “m” sounds that can begin to seem like “papa,” “baba,” or “mama”
  • Holds up arms to be lifted up or for a hug
B

Listening and Understanding

Child will develop their ability to listen and understand complete, complex, precise, and varied language.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Responds to sounds in the environment (e.g., startles or cries when there is a siren or an unexpected sound)
  • Leans intentionality towards a familiar person’s voice
  • Makes frequent eye contact while listening, and gestures in response
  • Turns and looks toward familiar sounds and/or words (e.g., when name is called)
C

Social Communication

Child uses language to relate to others according to the social expectations of their family, community, and culture.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Looks at a caregiver as they are speaking
  • Uses sounds and wholebody gestures to engage in interactions with educator
  • Repeats and imitates cooing sounds
  • Uses facial gestures to engage with adult (e.g., blinking eyes, sticking out tongue, clapping, covering face with hands)
  • Makes sounds when educator is singing
  • Waves bye-bye
D

Engaging with Stories and Books

Child enjoys, attends to, understands, and makes meanings from spoken and written language of storytelling and books.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Smiles, babbles, and laughs when the educator reads, sings, or tells stories to them
  • Touches, feels, manipulates, and tastes books
  • Looks at books presented by the educator
E

Phonological Awareness

Child develops the ability to recognize and manipulate the different sounds in spoken language(s).

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Listens, attends to, and reacts to speech sounds in the environment
  • Babbles and makes sounds exploring different ways to vocalize (e.g., “ba-ba” and “eee”)
  • Imitates sounds heard in familiar spoken language(s)
  • Is more attuned to the speech sounds of their home language than those of other languages
  • Reacts differently to an unfamiliar sound by gazing or attempting to recreate sound
V

Cognitive Development

A

Understanding Stability and Change

Child recognizes and develops the ability to explain how material objects change and how they remain stable.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • When something is dropped and make a sound, looks towards that sound
  • Looks for educator after they step out of the room
  • Looks for or orients toward a pacifier that they have just dropped
  • Finds a rattle that is hidden under a blanket when only part of the handle is showing
C

Memory and History

Child develops the ability to store, retrieve, and share information about past experiences.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Can anticipate familiar activities (e.g., kicking legs and cooing when shown bottle, nipple, or spoon before feeding)
  • Turns toward the front door after hearing the doorbell ring
D

Investigating and Exploring

Child becomes a scientific thinker by manipulating objects, asking questions, making observations and predictions, and developing generalizations.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Child uses senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste) to interact and gain information about people and environment
  • Explores objects with hands (grasping object) and mouth (bringing object to mouth)
  • Expresses a sense of wonder about their surroundings (e.g., looks at an object or person intently)
E

Understanding Cause and Effect

Child understands and explores the causes and effects of actions and events.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • After dropping an item, looks for or turns body toward item
  • Acts on an object to make a pleasing sight, sound, or effect (e.g., shakes rattle to make sound)
  • Moves body in a rocking motion in order to get the educator to keep rocking them
F

Engineering: Problem-solving with Materials

Child plans and uses hands, tools, and technology to solve problems with materials.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants

What educators might observe
  • Reaches for an object that has rolled far away
  • Uses a trusted caregiver as a tool to solve a physical problem (e.g., child watches the educator wind up a music box and, when the music stops, touches their hand to get them to make it start again)
  • Shakes and bangs ma terials to make a sound happen repeatedly
G

Math

1. Comparing and Categorizing

Child recognizes some similarities and differences between familiar and unfamiliar people, objects, or experiences.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants
What educators might observe
  • Distinguishes between objects they suck and those they do not
  • Smiles when they see or hear familiar caregiver
  • Gazes at unfamiliar object or person for longer period of time
  • Shows preferences for particular activities, such as being carried rather than pushed in the stroller
  • Explores how various toys feel and touches different objects in different ways

2. Number Sense and Quantity

Child understands and explores numbers and quantity.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants
What educators might observe
  • Holds one object in each hand and then drops one when someone holds out a third object
  • Explores one toy at a time by holding and mouthing it

3. Patterning

Child develops the ability to identify, describe, extend, and create patterns.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants
What educators might observe
  • Associates objects and actions with their daily rhythm (e.g., reaches for favorite blanket when tired)
  • Begins to show understanding of what comes next (e.g., burping after bottle, holding legs up for diapering)

4. Spatial Sense and Geometry

Child understands how objects, points, lines, and shapes fit in space.

0–9 months – See this age across all domains Infants
What educators might observe
  • Looks at own hands and feet as they move through space
  • Watches a ball rolling away after accidently knocking it
  • Observes a ball bounce up and down
  • Uses vision and hearing to track the path of someone walking by

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