Encourage social interaction with others by greeting them in front of your baby. New Jersey Birth to Three Early Learning Standards. (2013). New Jersey Council for Young Children. McMullen, M.B., J. Addleman, A.M. Fulford, S. Mooney, S. Moore, S. Sisk, & J. Zachariah. 2009. “Learning to Be Me while Coming to Understand We: Encouraging Prosocial (Level III)
Young children develop essential social emotional skills through relationships with caring and responsive adults. Within the context of caring and responsive relationships with adults, infants are secure and willing to explore and interact with others.
By watching and listening as the caregivers model social skills, infants can imitate and build a sense of what is expected as well as skills and incentives for social turn-taking, reciprocity, and cooperation known as prosocial skills. McMullen, M.B., J. Addleman, A.M. Fulford, S. Mooney, S. Moore, S. Sisk, & J. Zachariah. 2009. “Learning to Be Me while Coming to Understand We: Encouraging Prosocial (Level III) Vandell, D. L., & Wilson, K. S. (1987). Infants’ Interactions with Mother, Sibling, and Peer: Contrasts and Relations between Interaction System. Child Development, 58(1), 176. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130299 (Level IV)
Studies of infants in free-play sessions at 6 and 9 months with parents and siblings showed that children with secure attachments with adults developed better turn-taking and prosocial skills with peers. Mothers who played with infants had infants who were more secure and willing to explore and interact with peers.
Also, mothers who respond contingently to their infants’ behaviours may provide their infants with greater turn-taking and interaction experience, which fosters subsequent prosocial skills.