Social Development: Play

Social Development – Importance of Play
Self Concept: the perception a person has of who he or she is.
How can adults foster an accurate self concept?

• Allow children to explore experiences on their own.


• Respect Children’s decisions, correcting them when they are inappropriate.


• Avoid humiliating children, especially in front of others.

Identification: Learning what it means to be an adult through the process of modeling.
Modeling = observing the behavior of others and imitating it.

• Influences a child’s values, beliefs, and choices.


• Gender identity is learned in part through identification = what it means to be male or female.

Play is extremely important in social development.
Four kinds (stages) of play.

• Solitary play: children play alone.


• Parallel play: children play near each other, but interact only outside of their play.


• Cooperative play: children interact with each other within their play.


• Dramatic play a type of cooperative play in which children engage in adult roles (house, school, fireman, Church, etc.).

Self Discipline
Self discipline helps students to consider the needs and point of view of others.  It helps them to learn delayed gratification.  It also helps them to achieve autonomy, initiative, and industry.

How can adults promote self discipline?

• Set meaningful and reasonable limits.


• Consistently model desired behavior.


• Discipline by removal from the situation immediately and an age-appropriate explanation of incorrect behavior.


• Use age-appropriate discipline, stressing natural consequences for older children.

Children learn how to handle frustration in the future by the way they are disciplined.

Other important social skills learned during childhood
These skills help children become less egocentric.

• Sharing


• Turn taking


• Helping others


• Respect for property


• Respect for privacy.


• Self-esteem.