Infant Toddler Learning & Development Foundations

8 months
At around 8 months of age,
children become familiar
with objects and actions
through active exploration.
Children also build knowledge
of people, action,
objects, and ideas through
observation. (Fenson and
others 1976; Rogoff and
others 2003)
For example, the child
may:
• Cause toys to make noise
by shaking, banging, and
squeezing them. (5.5–8
mos.; Parks 2004, 58; by
12 mos.; American Academy
of Pediatrics 2004,
243)
• Roll car back and forth on
floor. (6–11 mos.; Parks
2004, 26)
Chart continues on next page.
Foundation: Symbolic Play
The developing ability to use actions, objects, or ideas
to represent other actions, objects, or ideas
18 months
At around 18 months of age,
children use one object to
represent another object and
engage in one or two simple
actions of pretend play.
For example, the child
may:
• Pretend to drink from an
empty cup by making
slurping noises and saying
“ah” when finished. (Segal
2004, 39)
• Begin to engage in pretend
play by using a play spoon
to stir in the kitchen area.
(12–18 mos.; Lerner and
Ciervo 2003)
• Pretend that the banana
is a telephone by picking
it up, holding it to the ear,
and saying, “Hi!” (12–18
mos.; Lerner and Ciervo
2003)
• Laugh at an older brother
when he puts a bowl on
his head like a hat. (12–18
mos.; Parks 2004, 317)
• Imitate a few steps of adult
behavior during play; for
example, pretend to feed
the baby doll with the toy
spoon and bowl. (15–18
mos.; Parks 2004, 27)
• Use a rectangular wooden
block as a phone. (18–24
mos.; Parks 2004, 28)
36 months
At around 36 months of age, children engage
in make-believe play involving several
sequenced steps, assigned roles, and an
overall plan and sometimes pretend by
imagining an object without needing the
concrete object present. (30–36 mos.; Parks
2004, 29)
For example, the child may:
• Assign roles to self and others when playing
in the dramatic play area (for example,
“I’ll be the daddy, you be the baby”), even
though the child may not stay in her role
throughout the play sequence. (30–36
mos.; Parks 2004, 29; 24 mos.; Segal
2004, 43)
• Line up a row of chairs and communicate,
“All aboard! The train is leaving.” (36 mos.;
Vygotsky 1978, 111)
• Use two markers to represent people in
the dollhouse by moving them around as
if they were walking. (36 mos.; Vygotsky
1978, 111)
• Stir “cake batter” while holding an imaginary
spoon or serve an invisible burrito
on a plate. (30–36 mos.; Parks 2004, 29;
scaled score of 10 for 27:16–29:15 mos.;
Bayley 2006, 69)
• Communicate with self during pretend
play to describe actions to self; for example,
“Now I stir the soup.” (Hart and
Risley 1999, 125)
• Plan with other children what they are
going to pretend before starting to play;
for example, “Let’s play doggies!” (Segal
2004, 39; 36 mos.; Meisels and others
2003, 74)
• Pretend to be a baby during dramatic play
because there is a new baby at home. (36
mos.; Meisels and others 2003, 73)
• Build a small town with blocks and then
use the toy fire truck to pretend to put out
a fire in the town. (By 36 mos.; American
Academy of Pediatrics 2004, 309)
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COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT