©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Chapter 15 Facilitating Social Development

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Social Development The Four How’s –How to Approach –How to Interact –How to Deal with Difference –How to Manage Conflict

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Social Skills and Overall Development Social skills cannot be separated from overall development. While engaged in a social conversation, language, physical skills, and cognitive skills are intertwined. Therefore social skills need to be taught and reinforced to all children.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Defining Appropriate Social Skills Appropriate social skills are rules and expectations prescribed by particular groups as to how group members will conduct themselves in private and in public.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Defining Appropriate Social Skills (continued) The major social skills learned in early childhood relate to getting along with others. Children need to be provided opportunities to interact with peers, adults, and family members.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Acquiring Social Skills Temperament and emotions –Three main types: Easy Difficult Slow to warm up –Emotions are felt, but reactions to the emotions are learned. –Appropriate responses to an emotion need to be taught.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Acquiring Social Skills (continued) Social reinforcement –Adult responsiveness This refers to how an adult responds to a young child’s needs. If the response is immediate and appropriate, then the child and the adult are satisfied. If the response is delayed or inappropriate, then the child becomes mistrustful and wary of the environment.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Acquiring Social Skills (continued) Impact of developmental problems –Infants who do not respond in the typical sense with smiles, coos, or eye gazing often are not stimulated by the caregivers to express emotion. –Overstimulated children tend to withdraw and turn away from caregivers’ show of emotion. –Over responding children cannot control their responses and often turn a caregiver off emotionally.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Acquiring Social Skills (continued) Social skills in sequence –Attachment –Joint attention –Separation protest –Fear of strangers –Stranger anxiety –Theory of mind –Pretend and role-playing

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. The Role of Early Learning Programs Play –Unoccupied behavior –Onlooker behavior –Solitary play –Parallel play –Associative play –Cooperative play

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. The Role of Early Learning Programs (continued) Teaching children to play –Arrange for children to be near each other. –Physically guide them into the play. –Give them materials to stimulate play. –Place objects in their hands. –Verbalize actions. –Rejoice. –Help others join in.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. The Role of Early Learning Programs (continued) –Provide social reinforcement. –Move the child toward a group. –Teacher slowly removes herself from the play experience. Gentle insistence –Teacher gently prods a child into participating in an activity.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. The Role of Early Learning Programs (continued) Incidental social learning –Explain differences among children as needed. –Answer questions honestly and openly. –Use simple words the child can understand. –Encourage social interactions.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. The Role of Early Learning Programs (continued) –To encourage incidental social learning: Move closer to the children playing. Smile and encourage play with all children. Bring new materials to the interaction. Make encouraging comments, keeping the play going.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. The Role of Early Learning Programs (continued) –Sharing and turn-taking A difficult concept for children because they have to give up what is theirs to meet the needs of someone else –Self-assertion Teach children to stand up for what is theirs and not let others just take from them. –Materials and equipment Provide multiple materials in areas where more than one child can play at a time. Encourage imitation by providing two of some toys.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. The Role of Early Learning Programs (continued) Imitation and modeling –Arrange the environment to ensure that interactions take place. –Reinforce the children for playing together. –Reinforce imitation of appropriate behaviors.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Teacher-Structured Peer Interactions Create activities in which all children must participate for the game to work. Discovery play sets up the activity for the children to engage in and work together.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Teacher-Structured Peer Interactions (continued) Peer tutoring and peer mediating –Children who are typically developing are given a chance to explain a new idea to a peer. –Mediation is done to keep children engaged. –Children with disabilities get the chance to play with others. –Teachers provide support and encouragement.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Teacher-Structured Peer Interactions (continued) –Peer tutoring The child with the disability learns from the peer. The peer is given a chance to refine and master a skill.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Teacher-Structured Peer Interactions (continued) Additional ways teachers can structure and facilitate learning: –Choose stories that focus on character development. –Practice manners. –Seat children close to appropriate models at circle time and large group activities. –Provide group projects. –Initiate a buddy center.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Teacher-Structured Peer Interactions (continued) –Fair play Rules in the classroom are for everyone. No one child should be allowed to break rules because of his or her disability. Encourage rule-following and reward appropriate behaviors.

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. When More Intervention is Needed Provide a quiet small group area for the child to practice social interaction. Give the child time to practice with the teacher before engaging another child. Use the tiered framework for intervention to model support. One-to-one shadowing –Model and support child in interaction.