Social skill milestones
Social skills are the skills that we use to interact and communicate with one another. They include verbal and non verbal modes of communication, such as using eye contact, tone of voice, gestures and body language to signal a message. Social skills are important in enabling us to form meaningful relationships and for us to be able to understand, interpret and respond appropriately in a social interaction. We begin to acquire our social skills in our very early childhood, and there are important social skills milestones that we can track to ensure our children are developing at an age appropriate rate.
0-6 months
Young babies may use eye gaze and establish eye contact to initiate or maintain a social interaction with a familiar adult. They may also commonly smile when they are approached and laugh during play activities. These skills show us that the baby enjoys being with another person.
6-12 months
As they grow babies will demonstrate developing social skills in their ability to engage in 1:1 social interactions for increasing periods of time, such as peek a boo games. Babies will also demonstrate skills such as lifting their arms up to their parents, holding out a toy to others, responding to facial expressions and imitating an adult's actions, enabling them to initiate and maintain social interactions more independently. These skills again show us that your baby is interested and enjoys being with another person.
1-2 years
As a toddler, children show developing social skills in their ability to initiate when prompted, and respond to greetings and farewells, such as 'hi' and 'bye bye' using words and gestures. Toddlers will also demonstrate increased social skills by reaching for objects whilst directing eye contact on their communication partner, alongside approaching and leading a person to the item that they want.
2-3 years
As children develop, between the ages of 2-3 they will show more sophisticated play skills, such as treating dolls and teddies as if they are alive, and engaging in pretend play actions, such as pretending to feed and wash their dolls. Children within this age range may also spontaneously look for objects outside of the here and now, and engage in some symbolic play, such as using an object in replace of something else, for example, a banana representing a telephone. At this stage, children will often play alongside other children.
3-4 years
Within this age range, children begin to develop their ability to take turns with other children during play. Children will also begin to play together during play sequences in small groups or pairs. At this stage, children may begin to communicate common feelings, such as 'happy', 'sad' and 'angry'. Children will also demonstrate increased imaginative play.
4-5 years
Within this age range, children demonstrate developing social skills through more cooperative play which involves simple games with rules. Children may verbally request to participate in a play activity that is already being carried out, and they may communicate when they want the activity to end.
At this stage, children are often able to play with other children with shared aims within their play.