12 - 24 Months

Sequence of Skills and Learning Goals

Communication / Language

Receptive language

Expressive language

Awareness of differences in sounds

  • Listening to and making zoo animal sounds

Receptive language

Expressive language

Awareness of differences in sounds

  • Listening to and making farm animal sounds

Receptive language

Expressive language

Awareness of differences in sounds

  • Identifying the sounds of different things in a book

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about pictures of different animals

Receptive language

Expressive language

Awareness of differences in sounds

  • Talking about pictures of farm animals

Cognitive

Object inquiry skills

  • Manipulating dry and wet sand

Problem-solving

Object inquiry skills

  • Taking apart objects that connect

Problem-solving

  • Exploring what another person or animal in a peekaboo book sees

Object inquiry skills

  • Making our bodies big and small
  • Matching big and small things

Object inquiry skills

  • Playing and building with blocks

Self-Regulation

Concentration

  • Watching and making fish swim and stop swimming

Self-control

  • Practicing how to calm down after participating in a rhyme with hand actions

Executive Function

  • Watching and recalling where a hopping toy rabbit hides

Concentration

  • Looking closely at items to determine whether they are the same or different

Self-control

  • Practicing how to calm down after ringing a bell

Social-Emotional

Social interaction skills

  • Engaging in open-ended play with a caregiver focused on toys of interest to the toddler

Social interaction skills

  • Engaging in play with a caregiver and taking turns

Social interaction skills

  • Noticing what others do during play with play dough

Social interaction skills

  • Playing together with different toys

Social interaction skills

  • Playing together with blocks

Physical / Health

Fine motor development

  • Engaging in a finger play

Gross motor development

  • Rolling, carrying, and dropping balls

Fine motor development

  • Making marks with paintbrushes and markers

Gross motor development

  • Crawling or stepping up and down stairs

Fine motor development

  • Doing hand actions as part of songs

Communication / Language

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about pictures of mother and baby animals at bedtime

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about bedtime routines described in a book

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about and acting out a story about monkeys jumping on a bed

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about and representing wind and rain

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Naming children in our room
  • Talking about pictures of facial expressions

Cognitive

Object inquiry skills

Problem-solving

  • Holding and carrying items to a destination

Problem-solving

  • Picking one toy for each teddy bear

Object inquiry skills

  • Watching and making water move

Object inquiry skills

  • Describing and manipulating different types of clothes

Problem-solving

Object inquiry skills

  • Taking toys apart and putting them back together

Self-Regulation

Executive function

  • Moving parts of our body by watching and listening

Concentration

  • Watching and making a toy frog hop and stop hopping

Self-control

  • Practicing how to calm down after participating in a rhyme with hand actions

Executive function

  • Practicing how to freeze our bodies

Concentration

  • Practicing how to find toys that are the same

Social-Emotional

Social interaction skills

  • Watching and doing actions of children and teddy bears in a book

Social interaction skills

  • Watching and imitating peer actions while playing with toy vehicles

Social interaction skills

  • Playing with peers at the water table and with toy telephones

Social interaction skills

  • Exploring how children’s activities and actions are the same and different

Social interaction skills

  • Talking about our families and friends
  • Recognizing peers in our room

Physical / Health

Gross motor development

  • Watching and practicing how we roll our bodies

Fine motor development

Gross motor development

  • Doing hand and leg actions with music

Gross motor development

  • Practicing walking

Fine motor development

  • Practicing how to shake and stop shaking a shaker

Gross motor development

  • Exploring how to throw a ball

Communication / Language

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about and pointing to our eyes, nose, and toes

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about and pointing to our head, shoulders, knees, and toes

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Listening to and saying rhyming words in a nursery rhyme

Receptive language

Expressive language

Awareness of differences in sounds

  • Noticing different kinds of sounds

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about food eaten by a hungry caterpillar and playing with toy food items

Cognitive

Object inquiry skills

  • Putting together and taking apart nesting cups

Object inquiry skills

Problem-solving

  • Finding toys that are the same and different

Object inquiry skills

  • Exploring spatial relations with shopping carts and small items

Object inquiry skills

  • Naming and manipulating toy animals

Object inquiry skills

Problem-solving

  • Taking apart and putting together different materials

Self-Regulation

Self-control

  • Practicing how to calm down after moving a sound-making toy

Executive function

  • Remembering where a toy car is hiding

Concentration

  • Watching and pretending to drive a toy car with periodic stops

Self-control

  • Practicing how to calm down after participating in a song with actions

Executive function

  • Looking closely to find pictures that are the same

Social-Emotional

Social interaction skills

  • Saying our name and the names of peers in our room

Social interaction skills

  • Participating with others in a shared activity

Social interaction skills

  • Helping with tasks in our room

Social interaction skills

  • Talking about happy and sad situations

Social interaction skills

  • Exploring how different family members do different kinds of activities

Physical / Health

Fine motor development

  • Making marks on paper with different types of artistic tools

Gross motor development

  • Carrying a bag of items

Fine motor development

Good health practices

  • Engaging in hand and arm actions with songs

Gross motor development

  • Balancing and moving parts of our body

Fine motor development

  • Putting buttons into a button box

Communication / Language

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about and pretending to be little ducks in a story

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about different types of trucks and how trucks get ready to sleep

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about and doing actions that show we are happy

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about an itsy bitsy spider in a story

Awareness of differences in sounds

  • Identifying and talking about quiet and loud sounds

Cognitive

Object inquiry skills

  • Naming familiar items

Object inquiry skills

  • Exploring location words

Object inquiry skills

  • Pouring water into and out of containers

Problem-solving

  • Exploring tubes and balls

Problem-solving

  • Manipulating small toys and different types of containers

Self-Regulation

Concentration

  • Looking for toys that are the same

Self-control

  • Practicing how to calm down after playing a musical instrument

Executive function

  • Watching and making our body move to music and stop when music stops

Concentration

  • Watching and making a pretend butterfly fly and stop flying

Self-control

  • Practicing how to calm down after participating in a song with actions

Social-Emotional

Awareness of emotions

  • Looking at and making different facial expressions

Awareness of emotions

  • Communicating happy and sad feelings

Awareness of emotions

  • Talking about and making different facial expressions

Awareness of emotions

  • Imitating different facial expressions

Awareness of emotions

  • Talking about the relationship between a mama fox and a little fox

Physical / Health

Gross motor development

  • Manipulating and throwing balls

Fine motor development

Gross motor development

  • Holding and carrying different types of balls

Fine motor development

  • Manipulating puzzle pieces

Fine motor development

  • Practicing how to shake and stop shaking bells

Fine motor development

Gross motor development

  • Holding and carrying sensory tubes

Communication / Language

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about and exploring different ways to carry a baby

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about pictures of children doing different activities

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Using words for different purposes, including naming items

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about saying goodnight to many different things

Receptive language

Expressive language

  • Talking about pictures in a wordless book

Cognitive

Object inquiry skills

  • Pretending a block or box is something else

Object inquiry skills

  • Using familiar items as intended

Problem-solving

  • Finding a toy dog that hides

Object inquiry skills

Problem-solving

  • Exploring a ball drop toy

Object inquiry skills

Problem-solving

  • Manipulating and putting together items that are the same

Self-Regulation

Executive function

  • Watching and remembering the whereabouts of a galloping toy horse

Concentration

  • Looking for farm animal toys that are the same

Self-control

  • Practicing how to calm down after shaking and rolling a sound-making ball

Executive function

  • Looking closely to find pictures that are the same

Concentration

  • Focusing on color in sorting different types of pretend foods

Social-Emotional

Awareness of emotions

  • Talking about a child’s feelings in different situations

Awareness of emotions

  • Talking about ways to calm down when we feel upset

Awareness of emotions

  • Singing with actions about feeling happy and sad

Social interaction skills

  • Engaging in play with a caregiver and with peers focused on sharing

Social interaction skills

  • Engaging in pretend play with a caregiver and with peers

Physical / Health

Fine motor development

  • Manipulating stacking toys and pegs in pegboards

Gross motor development

  • Practicing how to use a riding toy

Fine motor development

  • Manipulating toy vehicles

Gross motor development

Fine motor development

  • Practicing walking and running

Fine motor development

  • Using fingers and paintbrushes to make marks