Perception

Feeling soft fabric, lifting something a little heavy, or moving along with a song—children use their senses to learn about their bodies and surroundings, then gradually use that information to guide action. This sub-domain looks not only at what a child senses, but also at how sensory information supports matching, force, and coordinated movement.

Birth–9 months: learning through direct sensory contact. Looking, listening, and touching provide different kinds of information. Through repeated contact, babies become increasingly familiar with the properties of objects.
9–18 months: connecting properties they can see and feel. Once objects are familiar, children can use what they perceive to find similarities directly, even before they can name those properties.
18 months–3 years: using sensory information to guide action. The firmness of a material, the rhythm of a movement, and the result of an action all help children adjust how they move and how much force they use.

After age 3, these perceptual experiences continue to support motor control and cognitive development. This page highlights key early changes; it does not mean that Perception stops developing at age 3.

Below are selected skills to notice at specific ages. Age is a developmental reference point; understand each skill alongside what you see in everyday life.

4 months

Uses perceptual information to organize basic understanding of objects when given opportunities to observe, handle, and use objects, including recognizing differences in texture and how things feel.

What to notice: When your baby handles an object, do they attend to how it feels, sounds, or looks and explore it in different ways? The focus is building an understanding through sensory contact, not pointing to or naming a property.

How to support it: Sensory experience gives your child direct information about an object, and repeated contact helps that information become familiar. Offer safe experiences with clear—but not overwhelming—differences, follow what currently holds your baby's attention, and give them room either to continue or move away.

Keep in mind: Stronger stimulation is not automatically better, and every touch does not need to become a recognition test.

15 months

Uses perceptual information about properties of objects in matching them with each other through play and interaction with an adult.

What to notice: Does your child place similar objects together based on features they can see or feel? Notice the direct matching process; they do not need to name the color, shape, or reason for the match first.

How to support it: Perceived similarity is beginning to guide action: a child may learn to match before they can explain why. Make similarities and differences easy to see, and, when needed, place objects side by side to demonstrate or support comparison before returning the attempt to your child.

Keep in mind: Build the connection through real sensory information rather than treating spoken labels as the only evidence that they understand matching.

2 years (24 months)

Coordinates perceptual information and motor actions to participate in play and daily routines, such as singing songs with hand motions or practicing self-care skills.

What to notice: When your child sees where an object is or hears a rhythm, do they adjust their movement in response? Look beyond whether they can sing or hold something steadily and notice whether perceptual information is helping to coordinate the action.

How to support it: Sensation and movement increasingly work together, allowing your child to adjust their body based on what they see and hear. Make the effect of an action easy to perceive, demonstrate how to respond to a cue, and then give your child time to try.

Keep in mind: Slow down or reduce the difficulty when needed instead of requiring several kinds of coordination to be accurate at once; feedback should help your child find a workable movement.

2½ years (30 months)

Adjusts ways of interacting with materials based on sensory and perceptual information, such as pressing harder on clay than on play dough to make something.

What to notice: When materials differ in firmness, resistance, or texture, does your child change the movement or force they use? Focus on the adjustment that follows a perceived difference; they do not need to explain the material first.

How to support it: The way a material feels tells your child whether the original amount of force worked, and an adjustment produces new feedback. Offer safe materials with clearly different properties, allow time to compare and experiment, and demonstrate how an action can change in response to what they feel when needed.

Keep in mind: The aim is for sensory information to guide use—not to rush to one correct answer or insist that every material must always be handled gently in exactly the same way.

Sources and notes

Better Parenting’s child-development framework draws in part on the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five. For this pathway, you can also review Head Start’s Perception Effective Practice Guide. Official framework sources inform domain, sub-domain, goal, and developmental-progression terminology where applicable. Better Parenting independently organizes the parent-facing What to notice and How to support it explanations and connects them with its own activity library.

The ELOF itself is not a curriculum, assessment, or checklist. Better Parenting’s Skill Assessment and Growth Path are Better Parenting product features, not Head Start assessment tools.

Skill wording and age references on this page come from the Better Parenting child-development framework. A child may show different behaviors in different situations, so understand these examples alongside everyday experience rather than treating one activity as a judgment of an entire sub-domain.

This page helps you understand what you can observe and how you can offer support. To explore your child's current position in this sub-domain, open the corresponding Growth Path in the Better Parenting app and use the Skill Assessment.

Better Parenting Content Team | Updated September 2, 2026