Older Toddlers (16-36 months)

 Social and Emotional Development

Approaches Toward Learning

Physical Well-Being and Motor Development

Cognition and General Knowledge

Cognition and General Knowledge: Mathematics

Cognition and General Knowledge: Social Studies

Cognition and General Knowledge: Science

Language and Literacy

Self

Relationships

Initiative

Engagement and Persistence

Creativity

Motor Development

Physical Well-Being

Cognitive Skills

Number Sense

Number Relationships and Operations

Algebra

 Measurement and Data

 Geometry

Self

Science Inquiry and Application

Listening and Speaking

Reading

Writing

Awareness and Expression of Emotion

Self-Concept

Self-Comforting

Self-Regulation

Sense of Competence

Attachment

 Interactions with Adults

Peer Interactions and Relationships 

Empathy

Initiative and Curiosity

Planning, Action and Reflection

Attention

Persistence

Innovation and Invention

Expression of Ideas and Feelings Through the Arts

Large Muscle: Balance and Coordination

Small Muscle: Touch, Grasp, Reach, Manipulate

Oral-Motor

Sensory-Motor

Body Awareness

 Physical Activity

Nutrition

Self-Help

Safety Practices

 Memory

Symbolic Thought

Number Sense and Counting

 Number Relationships

Group and Categorize

Patterning

Describe and Compare Measurable Attributes

Spatial Relationships

 Social Identity

Inquiry

Cause and Effect

Receptive Language and Comprehension

Expressive Language

 Social Communication

Early Reading

Reading Comprehension

Print Concepts 

Phonological Awareness 

Letter and Word Recognition 

Early Writing 

Writing Application and Composition

Show awareness of own emotion and use nonverbal and/or verbal ways to express complex emotions such as pride, embarrassment, shame and guilt.

Show awareness of themselves as belonging to one or more groups.

Identify own feelings, needs and interests.

Anticipate the need for comfort and try to prepare for changes in routine.

With modeling and support, manage actions and emotional expressions. 

Recognize own abilities and express satisfaction when demonstrating them to others.

Display signs of comfort during play when familiar adults are nearby but not in the immediate area

Seek security and support from familiar adults when distressed.

Interact with familiar adults in a variety of ways.

Seek assistance from familiar adults.

Demonstrate early signs of interest in unfamiliar adults.

Engage in associative play with peers. 

With modeling and support, demonstrate socially competent behavior with peers, such as helping, sharing and taking turns. 

Demonstrate awareness that others have feelings.

Respond in caring ways to another’s distress in some situations.

Experiment in the environment with purpose.

Ask questions to gain information.

Make choices to achieve a desired goal.

Use previous learning to inform new experiences with people and objects in their environment.

Focus on an activity for short periods of time despite distractions

Engage in self-initiated activities for sustained periods of time.

Use materials in new and unconventional ways.

Use self-selected materials and media to express ideas and feelings.

Use locomotor skills with increasing coordination and balance.

Use a variety of non-locomotor body movements (hands in the air, turn around, stand on one foot, etc.) during play.

Coordinate the use of arms, hands and fingers to accomplish tasks.

Take bites from whole foods, coordinate chewing and swallowing.

Use sensory information to guide movement to accomplish tasks.

Name, point to and move body parts when asked.

Participate in active physical play and structured activities requiring spontaneous and instructed body movements.

Make simple food choices, have food preferences and demonstrate willingness to try new foods.

With modeling and support, complete personal care tasks (e.g., hand-washing, dressing, toileting, etc.). 

Cooperate and/or stop a behavior in response to a direction regarding safety. 

Use adults as resources when needing help in potentially unsafe or dangerous situations.

Recall information over a longer period of time without contextual cues.

Reenact a sequence of events accomplished or observed at an earlier time.

Anticipate routines.

Link past and present activities.

Engage in pretend play involving several sequenced steps and assigned roles.

Show understanding that numbers represent quantity and demonstrate understanding of words that identify how much.

Use number words to indicate the quantity in small sets of objects (e.g., 2, 3), and begin counting aloud.

Demonstrate an understanding that “adding to” increases the number of objects in the group.

Place objects in one-to-one correspondence relationships during play.

Sort objects into two or more groups by their properties and uses.

Copy and anticipate a repeating pattern.

Demonstrate awareness that objects can be compared by attributes (e.g., size, weight, capacity), and begin to use words such as bigger, smaller and longer.

Demonstrate how things fit together and/or move in space with increasing accuracy.

Identify and Describe Shapes

Recognize basic shapes.

Identify self and others as belonging to one or more groups by observable characteristics

Engage in sustained and complex manipulation of objects.

Engage in focused observations of objects and events in the environment.

Ask questions about objects and events in the environment.

With modeling and support, use simple tools to explore the environment.

Demonstrate understanding that events have a cause.

Make predictions.

Show understanding of requests and statements referring to people, objects, ideas and feelings.

Demonstrate interest in and use words that are new or unfamiliar in conversation and play.

Understand when words are used in unconventional ways.

Combine words to express more complex ideas, or requests.

With modeling and support, describe experiences with people, places and things.

Use words that indicate position and direction.

Participate in and often initiate communication according to commonly accepted expectations with family members and in social groups.

Show an appreciation for reading books, telling stories and singing.

Demonstrate an understanding of the meaning of stories and information in books.

Use pictures to describe and predict stories and information in books.

Understand when words are used in unconventional ways during shared reading.

Demonstrate a beginning understanding that print carries meaning. 

Distinguishes pictures from letters and words in a text.

Distinguish between sounds that are the same and different (e.g., environmental sounds, animal sounds, etc.)

With modeling and support, recognize familiar logos and environmental print. 

With modeling and support, recognize own name in print.

Begin to use thumb and fingers (5-finger grasp) of one hand to hold writing tool.

Make marks and “scribble writing” to represent objects and ideas.