Certain skills built before age three tend to serve as the foundation for much of what comes after — communication, learning, and social development all build on this early groundwork. Here's what's typically prioritized and why.
Joint Attention
Joint attention — sharing focus on something with another person, like pointing to show someone an interesting object — is one of the most foundational early social communication skills. It underlies later language development and social learning, since so much of how young children learn happens through shared attention with a caregiver.
Imitation
The ability to imitate another person's actions, sounds, or words is a foundational learning mechanism — much of typical early development happens through watching and copying others. Building imitation skills early opens the door to learning a wide range of other skills more efficiently.
Basic Requesting (Manding)
As covered in Teaching Your Child to Request ("Manding") in ABA Therapy, giving a young child an effective way to request what they want or need is often prioritized early, both because it's immediately motivating for the child and because it reduces frustration-driven behavior.
Following Simple Directions
Building the ability to follow simple, one-step directions is foundational for both learning and safety, and typically comes before more complex multi-step instructions.
Basic Social Engagement
This includes responding to one's name, engaging in simple back-and-forth interactions (even nonverbal ones, like a simple game), and tolerating brief periods of shared attention with another person — building blocks for the more complex social communication that develops later.
Play Skills
Early play skills — engaging with toys functionally, tolerating another person joining play, basic pretend or symbolic play as a child develops — support both cognitive and social development and are frequently woven into early intervention sessions as both a goal and a teaching context.
Tolerance for New Experiences and Transitions
Building basic tolerance for novelty and transitions early — trying a new activity, moving between activities without significant distress — supports a child's ability to engage in the wider range of experiences and learning opportunities that come as they grow.
Why These Specific Skills Are Prioritized
These foundational skills aren't arbitrary — each one supports a wide range of later development. A child with strong joint attention and imitation skills, for example, has a stronger foundation for learning language, since so much of language acquisition happens through shared attention and imitation of a caregiver's speech and actions.
How This Looks in Practice
In an early intervention ABA program, these foundational skills are typically woven into play-based sessions rather than taught in isolation — see What Is Early Intervention ABA? A Guide for Parents of Toddlers for more on what this actually looks like day to day.
For Holland-Area Families
Our BCBA, Kimberly Blazer, builds treatment plans around these foundational skill areas for young children, individualized to your specific child's current development. If you have a Holland-area toddler, Our Early Intervention Services service is designed around exactly this kind of goal. our in-home ABA therapy in Holland page has more information, or Get Started Today to get started.
This article is part of our complete guide, Why Early Intervention Matters. Clinically reviewed by Kimberly Blazer, BCBA.