(c) McGraw-Hill 2012

1. Chapter 11:
Social Skills
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

2. What is Socialization?
• Socialization:
– The process of learning the standards and
expectations of a specific culture
– Learning social skills is part of the socialization
process.
– Children need the care and support of trusted adult
during this process.
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3. Early Social Behaviors
• Attachment is prime factor in the development of
social skills.
– Another early social behavior is imitation.
– Early smiling is also a social behavior.
– Within first few months, infants are effective at non-
verbal communication and have attached themselves
to specific people.
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4. Stages of Psychosocial Development
• Erickson’s first three stages include:
– Trust versus mistrust
– Autonomy versus shame and doubt
– Initiative versus guilt
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5. Trust
• Trust is the first stage of psychosocial
development.
• If infants’ needs are consistently met, they learn
to develop a sense of basic trust.
• Part of developing trust means coping with
separation.
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6. Separation
• Helping children through separation involves:
– Being honest and stating facts (including emotional
facts)
– Offering support
– Welcoming things from home
– Allowing children individual ways of feeling comforted
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7. Separation
• Sometimes adults have a difficult time dealing
with children's separation issues.
• Parents have separation anxieties of their own.
• Separation involves a range of feelings
How do you deal with separation?
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8. Autonomy
• Autonomy is Erickson’s second stage of
psychosocial development.
– Autonomy occurs when an infant has reached his or
her second year.
– When infants become toddlers, they begin to perceive
themselves as individuals.
– Children begin to learn self-help skills during this stage.
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9. Autonomy
• Toddlers’ “NO!” is a sign of developing autonomy.
• Rejecting behaviors are normal for toddlers.
They show developing independence.
• By capitalizing on toddlers’ drive for
independence, you can promote the development
of self-help skills.
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10. Autonomy
• Independence in toilet training (which is part of a
child’s growing autonomy) depends on:
– Physical control
– Cognitive understanding
– Emotional willingness
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11. Initiative
• Initiative is Erickson’s term for the stage during
which older toddlers create, invent, and explore.
• Caregivers should respond to initiative by
providing information, resources, freedom, and
encouragement.
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12. Guidance and Discipline
• Guidance and discipline are part of the on-going
process of teaching social skills to children.
– Guidance is the philosophical approach to teaching the
standards and expectations of your culture.
– Discipline means the specific techniques used to
accomplish this task.
• One’s guidance philosophy determines ones
discipline techniques.
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13. Security and Control for Infants
• Guidance in the first year must be accepting and
trust building.
• Infants do not require discipline because their
limits come naturally from their own limitations.
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14. Limits for Toddlers
• Toddlers need to know that there are limits.
• Limits are rules of behavior.
How do limits provide security?
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15. Biting
• To address biting:
– Know why the child is biting by learning what is behind
the behavior
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16. Biting
• Reasons for biting include:
– Expressions of anger
– Expressions of curiosity
– Means for gaining attention
– A need for a strong interaction
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17. Biting
• The best way to stop biting is to prevent it!
• When a child is biting (or using other aggressive
behaviors), try to re-direct the urge to a positive
expression of the underlying emotion.
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18. Negativism
• If you want to stop negativism, avoid challenges.
• Try stating limits in positive terms.
What are some positive ways to
tell a child to “get off of the table”?
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19. Guidance and Discipline
• General considerations related to guidance and
discipline that should be considered:
– Plan your environment; avoid trouble spots
– Appreciate uniqueness of each child
– Natural consequences are sometimes the best teacher
– Avoid any discipline technique that inflict pain
– Cultivate family-caregiver partnerships
– Model behavior you want to teach
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20. Teaching Prosocial Behavior
• Prosocial Behavior:
– Must be taught
– Should be modeled by caregivers
– Helps children care about other children
– Depends on cooperation
• Cooperation can be taught through everyday caregiving tasks.
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21. The Special Need of All Children
• Self-esteem is a special need of all children.
• Self-esteem is the valuing of the self.
• Self-esteem stems from secure and nurturing
attachment during infancy.
• For toddlers, self-esteem is related to the
successful completion of tasks.
• Adults who feel good about themselves tend to
pass that feeling on to children.
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22. Online Learning Center
• See Chapter 11 of the text’s Online Learning
Center for chapter quizzes, Theory Into Action
activities, Video Observations, and more.
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