EYFS Development Matters Statements Birth to Three

• Turn towards familiar sounds. They are also startled by loud noises and accurately locate the source of a familiar person’s voice, such as their key person or a parent.
• Gaze at faces, copying facial expressions and movements like sticking out their tongue. Make eye contact for longer periods.
• Watch someone’s face as they talk.
• Copy what adults do, taking ‘turns’ in conversations (through babbling) and activities. Try to copy adult speech and lip movements.
• Enjoy singing, music and toys that make sounds.
• Recognise and are calmed by a familiar and friendly voice.
• Listen and respond to a simple instruction.
• Make sounds to get attention in different ways (for example, crying when hungry or unhappy, making gurgling sounds, laughing, cooing or babbling).
• Babble, using sounds like ‘baba’, ‘mamama’.
• Use gestures like waving and pointing to communicate.
• Reach or point to something they want while making sounds.
• Copy your gestures and words.
• Constantly babble and use single words during play.
• Use intonation, pitch and changing volume when ‘talking’.
• Understand single words in context – ‘cup’, ‘milk’, ‘daddy’.
• Understand frequently used words such as ‘all gone’, ‘no’ and ‘bye-bye’.
• Understand simple instructions like “give to nanny” or “stop”.
• Recognise and point to objects if asked about them.
• Generally focus on an activity of their own choice and find it difficult to be directed by an adult.
• Listen to other people’s talk with interest, but can easily be distracted by other things.
• Make themselves understood, and can become frustrated when they cannot.
• Start to say how they are feeling, using words as well as actions.
• Start to develop conversation, often jumping from topic to topic.
• Develop pretend play: ‘putting the baby to sleep’ or ‘driving the car to the shops’.
• Use the speech sounds p, b, m, w.
• Pronounce:
  • l/r/w/y
  • f/th
  • s/sh/ch/dz/j
  • multi-syllabic words such as ‘banana’ and ‘computer’
• Listen to simple stories and understand what is happening, with the help of the pictures.
• Identify familiar objects and properties for practitioners when they are described. For example: ‘Katie’s coat’, ‘blue car’, ‘shiny apple’.
• Understand and act on longer sentences like ‘make teddy jump’ or ‘find your coat’.
• Understand simple questions about ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘where’ (but generally not ‘why’).

EYFS Development Matters Statements Three to Four Year Olds

• Enjoy listening to longer stories and can remember much of what happens.
• Pay attention to more than one thing at a time, which can be difficult.
• Use a wider range of vocabulary.
• Understand a question or instruction that has two parts, such as “Get your coat and wait at the door”.
• Understand ‘why’ questions, like: “Why do you think the caterpillar got so fat?”
• Sing a large repertoire of songs.
• Know many rhymes, be able to talk about familiar books, and be able to tell a long story.
• Develop their communication, but may continue to have problems with irregular tenses and plurals, such as ‘runned’ for ‘ran’, ‘swimmed’ for ‘swam’.
• Develop their pronunciation but may have problems saying:
  • Some sounds: r, j, th, ch, and sh
  • Multisyllabic words such as ‘pterodactyl’, ‘planetarium’ or ‘hippopotamus’
• Use longer sentences of four to six words.
• Be able to express a point of view and to debate when they disagree with an adult or a friend, using words as well as actions.
• Start a conversation with an adult or a friend and continue it for many turns.
• Use talk to organise themselves and their play: “Let’s go on a bus… you sit there… I’ll be the driver.”

EYFS Development Matters Statements Birth to Three

• Find ways to calm themselves, through being calmed and comforted by their key person.
• Establish their sense of self.
• Express preferences and decisions. They also try new things and start establishing their autonomy.
• Engage with others through gestures, gaze and talk.
• Use that engagement to achieve a goal. For example, gesture towards their cup to say they want a drink.
• Find ways of managing transitions, for example from their parent to their key person.
• Thrive as they develop self-assurance.
• Look back as they crawl or walk away from their key person. Look for clues about how to respond to something interesting.
• Play with increasing confidence on their own and with other children, because they know their key person is nearby and available.
• Feel confident when taken out around the local neighbourhood, and enjoy exploring new places with their key person.
• Feel strong enough to express a range of emotions.
• Grow in independence, rejecting help (“me do it”). Sometimes this leads to feelings of frustration and tantrums.
• Begin to show ‘effortful control’. For example, waiting for a turn and resisting the strong impulse to grab what they want or push their way to the front.
• Be increasingly able to talk about and manage their emotions.
• Notice and ask questions about differences, such as skin colour, types of hair, gender, special needs and disabilities, and so on.
• Develop friendships with other children.
• Safely explore emotions beyond their normal range through play and stories.
• Talk about their feelings in more elaborated ways: “I’m sad because…” or “I love it when …”.
• Learn to use the toilet with help, and then independently.

EYFS Development Matters Statements Three and Four Year Olds

• Select and use activities and resources, with help when needed. This helps them to achieve a goal they have chosen, or one which is suggested to them.
• Develop their sense of responsibility and membership of a community.
• Become more outgoing with unfamiliar people, in the safe context of their setting.
• Show more confidence in new social situations.
• Play with one or more other children, extending and elaborating play ideas.
• Find solutions to conflicts and rivalries. For example, accepting that not everyone can be Spider-Man in the game, and suggesting other ideas.
• Increasingly follow rules, understanding why they are important.
• Remember rules without needing an adult to remind them.
• Develop appropriate ways of being assertive.
• Talk with others to solve conflicts.
• Talk about their feelings using words like ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘angry’ or ‘worried’.
• Understand gradually how others might be feeling.
• Be increasingly independent in meeting their own care needs, e.g. brushing teeth, using the toilet, washing and drying their hands thoroughly.
• Make healthy choices about food, drink, activity and toothbrushing.

EYFS Development Matters Statements Birth to Three

• Enjoy songs and rhymes, tuning in and paying attention.
• Join in with songs and rhymes, copying sounds, rhythms, tunes and tempo.
• Say some of the words in songs and rhymes.
• Copy finger movements and other gestures.
• Sing songs and say rhymes independently, for example, singing whilst playing.
• Enjoy sharing books with an adult.
• Pay attention and respond to the pictures or the words.
• Have favourite books and seek them out, to share with an adult, with another child, or to look at alone.
• Repeat words and phrases from familiar stories.
• Ask questions about the book. Makes comments and shares their own ideas.
• Develop play around favourite stories using props.
• Notice some print, such as the first letter of their name, a bus or door number, or a familiar logo.
• Enjoy drawing freely.
• Add some marks to their drawings, which they give meaning to. For example: “That says mummy.”
• Make marks on their picture to stand for their name.

EYFS Development Matters Statements Three to Four Year Olds

• Understand the five key concepts about print:
  • Print has meaning
  • Print can have different purposes
  • We read English text from left to right and from top to bottom
  • The names of the different parts of a book
  • Page sequencing
• Develop their phonological awareness, so that they can:
  • Spot and suggest rhymes
  • Count or clap syllables in a word
  • Recognise words with the same initial sound, such as money and mother
• Engage in extended conversations about stories, learning new vocabulary.
• Use some of their print and letter knowledge in their early writing. For example: writing a pretend shopping list that starts at the top of the page; writing ‘m’ for mummy.
• Write some or all of their name.
• Write some letters accurately.

EYFS Development Matters Statements Birth to Three

• Combine objects like stacking blocks and cups. Put objects inside others and take them out again.
• Take part in finger rhymes with numbers.
• React to changes of amount in a group of up to three items.
• Compare amounts, saying ‘lots’, ‘more’ or ‘same’.
• Develop counting-like behaviour, such as making sounds, pointing or saying some numbers in sequence.
• Count in everyday contexts, sometimes skipping numbers – ‘1-2-3-5.’
• Climb and squeeze themselves into different types of spaces.
• Build with a range of resources.
• Complete inset puzzles.
• Compare sizes, weights etc. using gesture and language – ‘bigger/little/smaller’, ‘high/low’, ‘tall’, ‘heavy’.
• Notice patterns and arrange things in patterns.

EYFS Development Matters Statements Three to Four Year Olds

• Develop fast recognition of up to 3 objects, without having to count them individually (‘subitising’).
• Recite numbers past 5.
• Say one number for each item in order: 1,2,3,4,5.
• Know that the last number reached when counting a small set of objects tells you how many there are in total (‘cardinal principle’).
• Show ‘finger numbers’ up to 5.
• Link numerals and amounts: for example, showing the right number of objects to match the numeral, up to 5.
• Experiment with their own symbols and marks as well as numerals.
• Solve real world mathematical problems with numbers up to 5.
• Compare quantities using language: ‘more than’, ‘fewer than’.
• Talk about and explore 2D and 3D shapes (for example, circles, rectangles, triangles and cuboids) using informal and mathematical language: ‘sides’, ‘corners’; ‘straight’, ‘flat’, ‘round’.
• Understand position through words alone – for example, “The bag is under the table,” – with no pointing.
• Describe a familiar route.
• Discuss routes and locations, using words like ‘in front of’ and ‘behind’.
• Make comparisons between objects relating to size, length, weight and capacity.
• Select shapes appropriately: flat surfaces for building, a triangular prism for a roof etc.
• Combine shapes to make new ones – an arch, a bigger triangle etc.
• Talk about and identifies the patterns around them. For example: stripes on clothes, designs on rugs and wallpaper. Use informal language like ‘pointy’, ‘spotty’, ‘blobs’ etc.
• Extend and create ABAB patterns – stick, leaf, stick, leaf.
• Notice and correct an error in a repeating pattern.
• Begin to describe a sequence of events, real or fictional, using words such as ‘first’, ‘then…’

EYFS Development Matters Statements Birth to Three

• Show attention to sounds and music.
• Respond emotionally and physically to music when it changes.
• Move and dance to music.
• Anticipate phrases and actions in rhymes and songs, like ‘Peepo’.
• Explore their voices and enjoy making sounds.
• Join in with songs and rhymes, making some sounds.
• Make rhythmical and repetitive sounds.
• Explore a range of sound-makers and instruments and play them in different ways.
• Notice patterns with strong contrasts and be attracted by patterns resembling the human face.
• Start to make marks intentionally.
• Explore paint, using fingers and other parts of their bodies as well as brushes and other tools.
• Express ideas and feelings through making marks, and sometimes give a meaning to the marks they make.
• Enjoy and take part in action songs, such as ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’.
• Start to develop pretend play, pretending that one object represents another. For example, a child holds a wooden block to her ear and pretends it’s a phone.
• Explore different materials, using all their senses to investigate them. Manipulate and play with different materials.
• Use their imagination as they consider what they can do with different materials.
• Make simple models which express their ideas.

EYFS Development Matters Statements Three and Four Year Olds

• Take part in simple pretend play, using an object to represent something else even though they are not similar.
• Begin to develop complex stories using small world equipment like animal sets, dolls and dolls houses etc.
• Make imaginative and complex ‘small worlds’ with blocks and construction kits, such as a city with different buildings and a park.
• Explore different materials freely, to develop their ideas about how to use them and what to make.
• Develop their own ideas and then decide which materials to use to express them.
• Join different materials and explore different textures.
• Create closed shapes with continuous lines, and begin to use these shapes to represent objects.
• Draw with increasing complexity and detail, such as representing a face with a circle and including details.
• Use drawing to represent ideas like movement or loud noises.
• Show different emotions in their drawings and paintings, like happiness, sadness, fear etc.
• Explore colour and colour-mixing.
• Listen with increased attention to sounds.
• Respond to what they have heard, expressing their thoughts and feelings.
• Remember and sing entire songs.
• Sing the pitch of a tone sung by another person (‘pitch match’).
• Sing the melodic shape (moving melody, such as up and down, down and up) of familiar songs.
• Create their own songs or improvise a song around one they know.
• Play instruments with increasing control to express their feelings and ideas.

EYFS Development Matters Statements Birth to Three

• Repeat actions that have an effect.
• Explore materials with different properties.
• Explore natural materials, indoors and outside.
• Explore and respond to different natural phenomena in their setting and on trips.
• Make connections between the features of their family and other families.
• Notice differences between people.

EYFS Development Matters Statements Three and Four Year Olds

• Use all their senses in hands-on exploration of natural materials.
• Explore collections of materials with similar and/or different properties.
• Talk about what they see, using a wide vocabulary.
• Begin to make sense of their own life-story and family’s history.
• Show interest in different occupations.
• Explore how things work.
• Plant seeds and care for growing plants.
• Understand the key features of the life cycle of a plant and an animal.
• Begin to understand the need to respect and care for the natural environment and all living things.
• Explore and talk about different forces they can feel.
• Talk about the differences between materials and changes they notice.
• Continue developing positive attitudes about the differences between people.
• Know that there are different countries in the world and talk about the differences they have experienced or seen in photos.

EYFS Development Matters Statements Birth to Three

• Lift their head while lying on their front.
• Push their chest up with straight arms.
• Roll over: from front to back, then back to front.
• Enjoy moving when outdoors and inside.
• Sit without support.
• Begin to crawl in different ways and directions.
• Pull themselves upright and bouncing in preparation for walking.
• Reach out for objects as co-ordination develops.
• Pass things from one hand to the other. Let go of things and hand them to another person, or drop them.
• Gradually gain control of their whole body through continual practice of large movements, such as waving, kicking, rolling, crawling and walking.
• Clap and stamp to music.
• Fit themselves into spaces, like tunnels, dens and large boxes, and move around in them.
• Enjoy starting to kick, throw and catch balls.
• Build independently with a range of appropriate resources.
• Begin to walk independently – choosing appropriate props to support at first.
• Walk, run, jump and climb – and start to use the stairs independently.
• Spin, roll and independently use ropes and swings (for example, tyre swings).
• Sit on a push-along wheeled toy, use a scooter or ride a tricycle.
• Use large and small motor skills to do things independently, for example manage buttons and zips, and pour drinks.
• Show an increasing desire to be independent, such as wanting to feed themselves and dress or undress.
• Start eating independently and learning how to use a knife and fork.
• Develop manipulation and control.
• Explore different materials and tools.

EYFS Development Matters Statements Three to Four Year Olds

• Continue to develop their movement, balancing, riding (scooters, trikes and bikes) and ball skills.
• Go up steps and stairs, or climb up apparatus, using alternate feet.
• Skip, hop, stand on one leg and hold a pose for a game like musical statues.
• Use large-muscle movements to wave flags and streamers, paint and make marks.
• Start taking part in some group activities which they make up for themselves, or in teams.
• Increasingly be able to use and remember sequences and patterns of movements which are related to music and rhythm.
• Match their developing physical skills to tasks and activities in the setting. For example, they decide whether to crawl, walk or run across a plank, depending on its length and width.
• Choose the right resources to carry out their own plan. For example, choosing a spade to enlarge a small hole they dug with a trowel.
• Collaborate with others to manage large items, such as moving a long plank safely, carrying large hollow blocks.
• Use one-handed tools and equipment, for example, making snips in paper with scissors.
• Use a comfortable grip with good control when holding pens and pencils.
• Show a preference for a dominant hand.
• Be increasingly independent as they get dressed and undressed, for example, putting coats on and doing up zips.