Social and Emotional Development
Social and emotional development means:
 The development of emotional communication.
 Understanding of self, ability to manage one's feelings .
 Understanding and knowledge of other people.
 Relationships, interpersonal skills and moral behavior .
Emotional Development Importance:
 Emotions are central in all aspects of human activity.
 They are vital to cognitive development because emotional reactions lead
to learning that is essential for survival.
 It is also vital to social behavior because babies' emotional reactions like
crying, laughing and smiling affect others' interests in powerful ways .
 Similarly the emotional reactions of others regulate children's social
behavior.
 Much research indicates that emotions influence children's physical wellbeing.
 Constant psychological stress in children is associated with various
health difficulties.
 Emotions are also important in the emergence of self-awareness .
 Infants can not describe their feelings as adults do . So, they use emotions
to communicate.
 In addition to facial expressions, some body movements also provide
information .
 International studies have suggested that infants from various cultures
show almost the same facial expressions.
1
 In the initial 2 years of life, babies and toddlers show basic emotions like
happiness, sadness, anger and fear.
 Basic emotions are so universal that even non-human primates display
them.
 Beside basic emotions, human beings are capable of another set of
emotions called the self-conscious emotions.
 As the name implies, these emotions include shame, pride,
embarrassment, guilt and envy .
Birth - 6 months:
 Show signs of almost all basic emotions .
 Smiles socially and laughs .
 Express happiness more when interacting with familiar people.
 Matches adults' emotional expressions while communicating face-to-face
 Develops awareness of self as a knower and actor; like understanding
that self is separate from rest of the world.
2
7 – 12 months
 Anger and fear increase, especially the case of anxiety.
 They feel secure with caregiver and builds strong caregiver relationship.
 Babies can detect the meaning of others‘ emotional signals .
 They feel much attached to familiar caregivers .
13 - 18 months
 Can play with familiar adults and children.
 Develops awareness of self as an object of knowledge and evaluation,
like understanding the psychological and social characteristics of self.
 Understands that others' emotional reactions may differ from one's own.
 Can start feeling empathy.
19 - 24 months
 Display self conscious emotions but the intensity depends on monitoring
and encouragement of adults .
 Adds more words in the vocabulary for talking about feelings .
 Learns to tolerate absence of familiar caregiver.
 Can use words to describe peer's behaviors .
 Learns to use own name or personal pronouns to describe self .
 Can sort others into categories based on age, sex, and other characteristics .
 Starts to develop self control .
3
2 - 3 Years
 Begins to develop self concept and self esteem .
 Understands causes, effects and behavioral signs of basic emotions .
 Learns to cooperate .
 Empathy increases .
3 - 4 Years
 Improves emotional self-regulation .
 Decreases non-social activities and plays interactively more .
 Forms first friendship .
 Begins to prefer same-sex playmates .
 Improves ability to interpret, predict and influence others' emotional
reactions .
 Expresses empathy more by language .
 Solves social problems better .
 Knows many morally relevant rules and behaviors .
5 – 6 Years
 Improves ability to interpret, predict and influence others' emotional
reactions .
 Expresses empathy more by language .
 Solves social problems better .
 Knows many morally relevant rules and behaviors .
4