Is my child OK socially? What should she be doing at this age with her peers?
You are in luck. NAEYC, an early education organization and the largest education group in the world, has figured this out for you.
The following checklist will help you get an idea of when your children will be displaying certain social and emotional abilities.
A number represents the age when most children are capable of this behavior. A v represents a more general timetable for accomplishing this.
| Empathy | |
| Responds with concerns over another’s distress |
4 |
| Interested in other people’s feelings |
4 |
| Knows others have a different inner life from own |
5 |
| Realizes others peoples feeling are different from their own |
v |
| Demonstrates caring and empathy for others |
5 |
| Demonstrates ability to relieve others’ negative feelings |
v |
| Play Skills |
|
| Solitary play |
2 |
| Enjoys parallel/associative play w/ peers |
2-4 |
| Participates spontaneously in play with others |
v |
| Shows competence in initiating play |
3,4 |
| Increasingly interacts/communicates w/ peers to initiate pretend play scenarios |
|
| that share a common plan and goal |
v |
| Plays together but without ability to subordinate personal goals |
3,4 |
| Works/plays cooperatively w/ peers |
5 |
| Uses proactive strategies to organize, direct/sustain interactions with others |
5 |
| Can initiate problem solving in conflicts |
5 |
| Reacts to social conflicts in a constructive manner |
v |
| Multi- turn conversation with other child |
5 |
| Shows growing understand of conversational body language |
4,5 |
| Shows growing ability to match language to varying social contexts |
5 |
| Has meaningful friendships |
5 |
