Learning
Learning Milestones For Your Child
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Cognitive and Learning: Overview (0-6 Months)
Cognition refers to how we think–and much more. It includes perception, coordinating information from our senses, memory, speech, and problem-solving.
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Capable of Imitating Facial Gestures (0-2 Months)
Newborns are not “blank slates” incapable of interacting with others. Newborns only hours old have been found to copy facial
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Copycats: How Children Learn from the Actions of Others
Fortunately for parents, young children are amazing students. They’re so good at learning, they do it even when we don’t
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Can Differentiate between Familiar and Unfamiliar Faces (0-3 Months)
Infants quickly become experts at scanning and identifying faces. A newborn infant can distinguish between its own mother’s face and
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Capable of Mathematical Reasoning: a Quantitative Skill Termed Numerosity (0-3 Months)
At birth, infants can process some types of mathematical information. More specifically, this ability involves distinguishing between different numbers of
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Recognizes that Objects Remain the Same Size and Shape Even If They Are Distant (0-5 Months)
When an object like a ball is moved some distance away, the eye perceives the ball as getting smaller, even
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Capable of Making Predictions, Creating and Testing Hypotheses about the Real World (0-6 Months)
Infants are active learners at birth. They are especially good at using their developing physical skills to interact with the
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Capable of Demonstrating Certain Types of Memory (0-7 Months)
All the physical, emotional, and face-to-face experiences that infants have regularly form a network of unconscious expectations and reactions to
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Cross-Modal Perception: Can Relate What They Feel with What They See (1-4 Months)
For infants to make sense of the sights, sounds, and feelings that buzz around them, they need to coordinate this
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Language Learning Begins (1-6 Months)
It’s never too early to enjoy a “conversation” with your baby! Neuro-imaging studies show us that long before a baby
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Cross-Modal Perception: Can Relate What They Hear with What They See (2-4 Months)
Young infants are also capable of relating what they hear with what they see. One study tested two-month-old infants’ ability
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Struggles To Get Objects That Are Out Of Reach (3-6 Months)
At 4 months, babies begin coordinating their emerging perceptive abilities to struggle to get objects that are out of reach.
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Explores the World (4-7 Months)
Although newborns react primarily by reflex, babies begin making choices and actively exploring the world around them at 3 to
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Cognitive and Learning: Overview (6-12 Months)
Between six and twelve months, babies eagerly explore the world around them. When they’re not playing peek-a-boo, they will grab
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Can Perform Simple Addition and Subtraction Exercises (5-10 Months)
Several studies have shown that infants understand some basic concepts about numbers. By around 5 months, infants show surprise when
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Acquires the Notion of Object Permanence (That a Hidden Object Still Exists Even If One Can’t See It) (7-12 Months)
Before 8 months, a baby will think that an object has disappeared if it is covered or hidden from view.
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Memory Improves (8-12 Months)
At around 8 months, there is a change in the way that infants remember. Before, they could recognize objects and
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Attempts to Use Objects “Correctly” (Using a Phone, Drinking from a Cup, etc.) (8-15 Months)
Between 8 and 12 months of age, babies become increasingly conscious that items have names and particular functions associated with
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Explores Objects in Many Different Ways (Shaking, Banging, Throwing, Dropping) (8-16 Months)
As they approach their first birthday, babies begin experimenting with everything they find: dropping, rolling, shaking, throwing, submerging, or waving
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Take a Break with Books
Cereal is on the floor, the laundry is piled high, and your toddler comes to you with her favorite book
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Can Distinguish between Two vs. Three Objects (9-12 Months)
By 7 months, infants can tell the difference between different numbers of objects and match the number of sounds they
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Peek-A-Boo
Young children are great explorers From birth to age five, children learn an astonishing amount about how the world works.
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Cognitive and Learning: Overview (12-24 Months)
In their second year, children become more creative in exploring the world. They continue to drop, throw, and bang objects
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Recognizes the Difference between Self and Other People (12-20 Months)
Between 12 and 15 months, children increase their awareness of themselves as different from others. Although self-awareness develops more fully
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Copycats
The world’s best copycats. Babies are born learning from you. Even at birth, infants can watch what you do and
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Testing 1,2,3: How Children Learn through Repetitive Behavior
When children begin their second year, it can be a very difficult time for parents and caregivers. Children at this
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Dad’s Club: Make Reading Fun
“Daddy! Read me a story!” he says while you tuck him between the sheets. And before you know it, he’s
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Baby See, Baby Do (15-24 Months)
Babies can remember a lot For decades, scientists didn’t think babies could remember much. Although parents and caregivers suspected that
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Recognizes Own Facial Features (15-24 Months)
Sometime between 15 and 24 months, children take a large step in self-awareness. In an experiment known as the “rouge
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May Show an Interest in Being Potty Trained (16-25 Months)
Many toddlers are ready for toilet training after their second birthday, but early training is possible with some children. If
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Testing 1, 2, 3
Is your toddler getting into everything? Has your “little angel” started coloring on your walls? Does she throw her cereal
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Begins to Pretend in Play (18-24 Months)
Play begins when infants start exploring objects and, at around 18 months, evolve to using them for their intended purpose.
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Cognitive and Learning: Overview (2-3 Years)
Between two and three, children become better problem solvers. They can make mechanical toys “work” and can put together puzzles
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Pretend Play Includes Symbolic Use of Objects (24-36 Months)
Pretend play includes the symbolic use of objects. Once an object has been given an “identity” (for example, a block
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I Know This Word
Words are all around us! Just one more stop before you head home. So into the store, you go. You’re
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Develops an Understanding of Other People’s Intentions and Goals (25-36 Months)
The beginning of understanding other people’s minds is gradual; at 9 months, an infant may exhibit “joint attention,” the ability
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Capable of Completing Puzzles with Three or Four Pieces (26-36 Months)
By the end of their second year, toddlers begin to understand the relationship between objects, solve simple jigsaw puzzles, and
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Can Make Mechanical Kinds of Toys “Work” (28-36 Months)
The learning process becomes more thoughtful for toddlers as they approach their third birthday. They begin solving problems and performing mental
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Capable of Some Deception (28-37 Months)
When children develop the ability to deceive others is controversial, and some researchers believe that “lying” does not truly emerge
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Cognitive and Learning: Overview (3-5 Years)
Between three and five, children become more sophisticated thinkers. They have a clearer sense of time, they can count objects
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Increasingly Inventive Fantasy Play (36-48 Months)
Preschoolers enjoy vivid fantasy lives and imagine themselves in various roles, from firefighters and dancers to doctors and superheroes. Taking on
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Story Time: Helpful Skills for Pre-Literacy
Sharing books is a great way to help your child learn to read and write. But there is something just
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Tell Me a Story
Stories are a great way to connect! “That’s a picture of Grammy when she was a little girl. She loved
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Capable of Approaching Problems from a Single Perspective (38-50 Months)
When faced with specific challenges, three-year-olds approach problems from a single perspective. They haven’t yet developed the ability to see
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Gone Fishing: Understanding that Written Language Carries Meaning
Beginning at an early age, many children begin trying to understand the signs, labels, logos, and printed words they see
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Capable of Verbal Knowledge of a Few Numbers (39-48 Months)
Preschoolers understand the concept of counting and may know a few numbers by the end of their second year. References:
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Can Correctly Name Some Colors (40-48 Months)
Although children can distinguish among colors at an earlier age and may learn color words, they may not consistently name
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Learns to Count Objects Accurately (40-49 Months)
Once children begin to talk, counting soon follows. At first, this counting is not very precise, and the words for
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Begins to Have a Clearer Sense of Time (42-50 Months)
Children develop a much clearer sense of time at about 3 years of age. They know their daily routines and show
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Becomes Capable of Deliberate Lying (46-53 Months)
When children develop the ability to deceive others is somewhat controversial. Although some researchers believe children can be deceptive by
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Realizes Other People Can Have Inaccurate Perceptions of the World (48-57 Months)
Children gain new insights into how other minds work between ages 4 and 5. Part of this understanding includes realizing
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Shows Increased Sophistication in Understanding the Concept of Time (49-59 Months)
Preschoolers understand that days are divided into mornings, afternoons, and nights and that years consist of four seasons. When they
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Realizes that People May Have Different Visual Views of the Same Object (50-58 Months)
Before children are about 4 years old, they don’t understand that their view of an object and someone else’s view