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Social & Emotional Development
Developing Relationships with Peers & Adults
WiseTip: SE-REL-M0818-P01A

Provide opportunities for your child to watch, play and interact with other babies and children, for example, when at the playground.

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  1. New Jersey Birth to Three Early Learning Standards. (2013). New Jersey Council for Young Children.

  2. Ginsburg, K.R. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics, 119(1): 182–191. (Level IV)

8-18 months, 0-9 months
Play
WHY IT MATTERS

Young children benefit significantly from having play partners.

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  1. Ginsburg, K.R. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics, 119(1): 182–191. (Level IV)
By six months, infants can communicate with other infants by smiling, touching and babbling and can participate in group communication.
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  1. Selby, J.M., and B.S. Bradley. (2003). Infants in groups: A paradigm for study of early social experience. Hum. Dev. 46:197–221. (Level III)
 Playing games where they can imitate one another (with an adult facilitating) helps them to self-regulate, take turns and learn skills for social interaction in a free and fun manner.

Playing with others enhances children's development of social skills, language and learning abilities. When a child becomes a toddler, having an adult as a play partner helps the child develop self-direction, turn-taking and reciprocity.

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  1. Fiese, B. H. (1990). Playful relationships: A contextual analysis of mother-toddler interaction and symbolic play. Child Development, 61(5), 1648–1656. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130772 (Level IV)
Free, non-directive play, which allows the child to take the lead in play, was found to be most effective for developing these skills.
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  1. Kwon, K.-A., Bingham, G., Lewsader, J., Jeon, H.-J., & Elicker, J. (2013). Structured Task versus Free Play: The Influence of Social Context on Parenting Quality, Toddlers’ Engagement with Parents and Play Behaviours, and Parent-Toddler Language Use. Child & Youth Care Forum, 42(3), 207–224. (Level IV)

  2. Gardner-Neblett, N., Holochwost, S.J., Gallagher, K.C., Iruka, I.U., Odom, S.L., & Pungello,E.P. (2016). Guided versus independent play: Which better sustains attention among infants and toddlers? Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE). (Level III)