A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Checkpoints for Progress in Reading and Writing for Teachers and Learning Partners - February 1998
Children From Birth to Thirty-Six Months

Most children from birth to thirty-six months can do the following:

  1. As a newborn, the child listens and reacts to your voice and other sounds and expresses feelings by cooing, gurgling, smiling, and crying.

  2. By eight months, the child plays with sounds, babbles, and:

  3. By twelve months, the child understands simple words and:

  4. By twenty-four months, the child puts two or more words together to make short sentences and:

  5. By thirty-six months, the child listens well to stories being read and:

Books to read at this level:*

Birth to Eight Months:

Big Fat Hen, by Keith Baker
Ten, Nine, Eight, by Molly Bang
Play Rhymes, by Marc Brown
Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
Tomie DePaola's Mother Goose, by Tomie DePaola
Eye Winker, Tom Tinker, Chin Chopper: 50 Musical Finger Plays, by Tom Glazer
Rosie's Walk, by Pat Hutchins
Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young, by Jack Prelutsky
Have You Seen My Duckling? by Nancy Tafuri
My First Mother Goose, by Rosemary Wells
Eighteen to Thirty-Six Months:

The Little Red Hen, by Bryon Barton
Clifford the Big Red Dog, by Norman Bridwell
Wait Till the Moon is Full, by Margaret Wise Brown
Stellaluna, by Jannell Cannon
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
Millions of Cats, by Wanda Gag
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin Jr. and Lois Ehlert
Curious George, by H.A. Rey
The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss
The Bunny Planet, by Rosemary Wells


Eight to Eighteen Months:

Moon Bear, by Frank Asch
Will I Have a Friend? by Miriam Cohen
Corduroy, by Don Freeman
Where's Spot? by Eric Hill
Mama, Do You Love Me? by Barbara Joose
Peter's Chair, by Ezra Jack Keats
Pat the Bunny, by Dorothy Kunhardt
Clap Hands, by Helen Oxenbury
Seven Blind Mice, by Ed Young
"More, More, More" Said the Baby, by Vera Williams

 

*Books recommended by the American Library Association.


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