Observation Chart

OBSERVATION CHART
Use the following chart to determine which milestones your child has mastered and which still
need work. The abilities that signal mastery of each milestone are listed on the left. You can use
the rating scale to rate your child in each one, as she is now. If the skill is always present, record
at what age it was mastered.
Rating Scale: N = ability never present

S = ability sometimes present
A = ability always present
L = child loses ability under stress (hunger, anger, fatigue, etc.)
Ability Current Rating Age Mastered

MILESTONE 1: SELF-REGULATION
AND INTEREST IN THE WORLD
1. Shows interest in different sensations for 3+
seconds
2. Remains calm and focused for 2+ minutes
3. Recovers from distress within 20 minutes with
help from you
4. Shows interest in you (i.e., not only in inanimate
objects)
MILESTONE 2: INTIMACY
1. Responds to your overtures (with a smile, frown,
reach, vocalization, or other intentional behavior)
2. Responds to your overtures with obvious
pleasure
3. Responds to your overtures with curiosity and
assertive interest (e.g. by studying your face)
4. Anticipates an object that was shown then
removed (e.g., smiles or babbles to show interest)
5. Becomes displeased when you are
unresponsive during play for 30 seconds or more
6. Protests and grows angry when frustrated
7. Recovers from distress within 15 minutes with
your help
MILESTONE 3: TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION
1. Responds to your gestures with intentional
gestures (e.g., reaches out in a response to your
outstretched arms, returns your vocalization or
look)
2. Initiates interactions with you (e.g., reaches for
your nose or hair or for a toy, raises arms to be
picked up)
3. Demonstrates the following emotions:
• closeness (e.g., by hugging back when
hugged, reaching out to be picked up)
• pleasure and excitement (e.g., by smiling
joyfully while putting finger in your point or
while taking a toy from your mouth and
putting it in her own
• assertive curiosity (e.g., by touching and
exploring your hair)
• protest or anger (e.g., by pushing food off
the table or screaming when desired toy
not brought)
• fear (e.g. by turning away, looking scared,
or crying when a stranger approaches too
quickly)
4. Recovers from distress within 10 minutes by
being involved in social interactions
MILESTONE 4: COMPLEX COMMUNICATION
1. Closes 10 or more circles of communication in a
row (e.g., takes you by the hand, walks you to the
refrigerator, points, vocalizes, responds to your
question with more noises and gestures, and
continues gestural exchange until you open the
door and get what he wants)
2. Imitates your behavior in an intentional way
(e.g., puts on Daddy’s hat, then parades around the
house waiting for admiration)
3. Closes 10 or more circles using:
• vocalizations or words
• facial expressions
• reciprocal touching or holding
• movement in space (e.g. rough-housing)
• large motor activity (e.g. chase games,
climbing games)
• communication through space (e.g., can
close 10 circles with you from across the
room)
4. Closes three or more circles in a row while
feeling the following emotions:
• closeness (e.g., uses facial expressions,
gestures, and vocalizations to reach out for
a hug, kiss, or cuddle, or uses imitation
such as talking on toy phone while you are
on the real phone)
• pleasure and excitement (uses looks and
vocalizations to invite another person to
share excitement over something; shares
“jokes” with other children or adults by
laughing together at some provocation)
• assertive curiosity (explores independently;
uses ability to communicate across space
to feel close to you while exploring or
playing on her own)
• fear (tells you how to be protective, e.g.,
says “No!” and runs behind you)
• anger (deliberately hits, pinches, yells,
bangs, screams, or lies on the floor to
demonstrate anger; occasionally uses cold
or angry looks instead)
• limit setting (understands and responds to
your limits whether expressed through
words—“No, stop that!”—or gestures—
shaking finger, angry face)
5. Uses imitation to deal with and recover from
distress (e.g. bangs on floor and yells after being
yelled at)
MILESTONE 5: EMOTIONAL IDEAS
1. Creates pretend dramas with two or more ideas
(e.g., trucks crash then pick up rocks, dolls hug
then have a tea party; ideas need not be related)
2. Uses words, pictures, gestures to convey two or
more ideas at a time (e.g., “No sleep. Play.”); ideas
need not be related
3. Communicates wishes, intentions, and feelings
using
• words
• multiple gestures in a row
• touch (e.g., lots of hugging or rough
housing)
4. Plays simple motor games with rules (e.g.,
taking turns throwing ball)
5. Uses pretend play or words to communicate the
following emotions while expressing two or more
ideas:
• closeness (e.g., has a doll say, “Hug me,”
then child answers, “I give you kiss”)
• pleasure and excitement (e.g., makes
funny words then laughs)
• assertive curiosity (e.g., makes pretend
airplane zoom around room, then says it’s
going to the moon)
• fear (e.g., stages drama in which doll is
afraid of loud noises and then call for
mother)
• anger (e.g., has soldiers shoot guns at one
another then fall down)
• limit setting (e.g., has dolls follow rules at
tea party)
6. Uses pretend play to recover from and deal with
distress (e.g., plays out eating the cookie she
couldn’t really have)
MILESTONE 6: EMOTIONAL THINKING
1. In pretend play, two or more ideas are logically
tied together, even if the ideas themselves are
unrealistic (e.g., the car is visiting the moon and
gets there by flying fast)
2. Builds on adult’s pretend play idea (e.g., child is
cooking soup, adult asks what’s in it, child answers,
“Rocks and dirt”)
3. In speech, connects ideas logically; ideas are
grounded in reality (e.g., “No go sleep. Want to
watch television.”)
4. Closes two or more verbal circles of
communication (e.g., “Want to go outside”; adult
asks, “Why?” “To play.”
5. Communicates logically, connecting two or more
ideas, about intentions, wishes, needs, or feelings,
using
• words
• multiple gestures in a row (e.g., pretending
to be an angry dog)
• touch (e.g., lots of hugging as part of a
pretend drama in which child is the daddy)
6. Plays spatial and motor games with rules (e.g.,
taking turns going down a slide)
7. Uses pretend play or words to communicate two
or more logically connected ideas dealing with the
following emotions:
• closeness (e.g., doll gets hurt and Mommy
fixes it)
• pleasure and excitement (e.g., says
bathroom words, such as “doody” and
laughs)
• assertive creativity (e.g., good soldiers
search for missing princess)
• fear (e.g., monster scares baby doll)
• anger (e.g., good soldiers fight bad ones)
• limit setting (e.g., soldiers can hit only bad
guys because of the rules)
8. Uses pretend play that has a logical sequence
of ideas to recover from distress, often suggesting
a way of coping with the distress (e.g., the child
becomes the teacher, bossing the class)

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OBSERVATION CHART

Rating Scale: N = ability never present

Ability Current Rating Age Mastered

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