Social Development

Children also learn through play. Adults can also support development of socially appropriate behavior such as greeting others, providing compliments, and asking questions or checking in by role-playing these interactions with children during pretend games or with dolls or action figures.

Sometimes it will be necessary to prompt a child to engage in a desired social skill. A prompt is a supplemental event that occurs before a desired behavior, and it makes the behavior more likely to happen at that moment. For example, an adult might remind a child to greet another person they see in the neighborhood. Prompts can take many forms. Sometimes a child will only need a brief gesture prompt or a raised eyebrow; at other times, an adult may have to model a word or phrase that they want the child to state at a particular moment.

If caregivers find that they are giving children many prompts to engage in appropriate social interactions, they should consider engaging in a process called fading, in which the prompt is made less and less obvious over time until it is no longer provided. For example, a child may initially require an adult to provide a full sentence prompt to engage in a particular skill. Let’s take the example of offering to help others. An adult may say to the child, “You can ask me if I need help”. The child will ideally respond with an offer to help. Over time, in similar situations, the adult may deliver a prompt such as, “Remember what you can ask me”. Later, they may give the child an expectant look and gesture. The prompt is made smaller and less obvious over time until it fades away and the desired skill occurs in the absence of the prompt.

When children emit these targeted social skills, it is important for adults to provide positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement might take the form of praise, such as “I appreciate your kind words”. Positive reinforcement can also consist of providing a child with a small token/item or physical attention such as a hug or gentle touch after they engage in a desired social skill. One of the most effective forms of positive reinforcement is naturally-occurring reinforcement. Naturally-occurring reinforcement is often directly tied to the behavior the child emits. For example, if a child politely asks for a toy, the naturally-occurring reinforcer would be that the toy is handed to them.

Will these strategies also work in a group setting?

Yes! Group-appropriate social skills can also be taught using prompting and reinforcement. Some examples of social skills that are appropriate in a group setting include listening to instructions, cooperation, waiting, and turn-taking. Adults can set the expectations for these skills to occur by delivering a simple instruction. It can be helpful to pair the instruction with a gesture, such as placing a finger to one’s lips when children are expected to wait quietly. Again, positive reinforcement occurring after the skill is emitted will make it more likely that the child will engage in that skill given similar situations in the future.