Preschool Social Development

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To meet the social needs of preschoolers, make sure you:

• Provide opportunities for children to work together to complete a task like cooking, woodworking, gardening, or creating a mural
• Encourage positive interactions between children
• Allow preschoolers to engage in small group, whole group, and individual activities throughout the day
• Provide opportunities for sharing, caring, and helping, such as making cards for a sick child, caring for pets, or watering plants 
• Provide activities to promote understanding and appreciation of diversity (such as encouraging parents to share family customs)
• Provide activities to help children understand social skills (for example, use storybooks and discussion to work through common conflicts)
• Answer children’s questions about important things in the environment 

​Some children need help developing the social skills necessary for cooperative and dramatic play. They may need practice in taking turns and the “me first, then you” patterns involved in this play. Remember that children are not born with these skills, they are learned. Teachers need to model and teach the desired social skills. Preschoolers are learning to respect the rights of others, and to use words to settle arguments.  Once again, these skills take time to learn. Quarrels and fights are a normal part of the preschool years. It is important to help children work through their own solutions rather than stepping in and solving problems for them. 

Socially, preschool children begin playing with each other instead of alongside each other. This is called cooperative play.  A major component of cooperative play is dramatic play. Dramatic play is pretending or making believe. This type of play occurs when children act out roles themselves and when they manipulate figures such as small toy people in a dollhouse. Dramatic play is enhanced by props that reflect cultural diversity.  ​

Provide many dramatic play materials, including:

• Dress-up clothes with shoes, clothing, and hats for both men and women
• Work attire such as hardhats, transportation worker caps, western hats, running shoes, clip-on ties, and jackets
• Props such as clothing and plastic foods representing a variety of cultures and equipment used by people with differing abilities
• Props to support dramatic play themes such as restaurant (old menus, and paper and markers for taking orders), grocery store (empty cereal boxes, soup cans, egg cartons, milk cartons, etc.), and fire fighting (fire hats, old rubber boots, sections of hose, etc.) 

Course Navigation Menu

1. Course Agenda
2. Social & Emotional Development
3. What is Social-Emotional?
4. Individual Differences​
5. Love is Not Enough
6. Supporting Social-Emotional (1/5)
7. Milestones in Infants
8. Infant Emotional Development
9. Infants and Toddlers

10. Milestones in Toddlers
11. Toddler Emotional Development
12. Toddler Social Development
13. Toddler Social/Emotional (2/5)
14. Milestones in Preschoolers
15. Preschool Emotional Development
16. Preschool Social Development
17. Development of Emotions
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18. Identify Emotions (3/5)
19. More About Emotions
20. Learning to Regulate 
21. Self-Regulation
22. Self-Regulation Skills (4/5)
23. End of Course Quiz (5/5)
24. Course Evaluation Form​
Parking Lot
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