Lessons Drawn From Observing Young Peers Together

Abstract

Based on studies during the past 13 years of what transpires between young peers, lessons are drawn about the nature of human sociability and the development of social skill during the first three years of life. Peer encounters have proven especially helpful for discovering the forms of sociability and social skill the infant is capable of without the aid of a more skillful social partner.From early in infancy, children are quite sociable with peers (age-mates), both in novel play settings and in their own home or customary group care settings, both with an unfamiliar peer and with those quite familiar, both at the start of acquaintanceship with a particular peer and after many encounters with that peer. Their sociability is seen in their attraction to peers, their directing to peers of such distinctively social behaviors as vocalizations,smiles, and gestures, and the predominantly friendly nature of their behavior. Peer encounters in the absence of customary play materials refute claims that attraction to peers is a by-product of interest in toys and the inanimate spectacles peers create through their actions on toys.Distinctions should be drawn between sociability and social skills, especially interactive skills. Interactive skills are systematic ways the young child relates his/her own behavior to the details of a partner's behavior that function to facilitate such valued social outcomes as the generation of a cooperative game or a conversation or the resolution of a dispute. Observations of young peers highlight the distinctive nature of the infant's interactive skills. Social influence between peers is present from 6 months, but rarely takes the form customary for older children. Joining a peer and manipulating the same play material as the peer are rudimentary interactive skills that emerge by 12 months. Interactive skills enabling the generation of extended sequences of social interaction on a common cooperative theme progress rapidly during the third year of life.The distinctive form of the young child's interactive skills produces distinctive patterns of interaction among young peers. Their interactions are managed largely nonverbally well into the third year of life, and extended Cooperative interactions most often take the form of games in which one or both' children imitate each other's actions. Despite the predominance of imitation, their encounters are also marked by complementary role relationships. The distinctive features of peer encounters prompt speculations about the role peer encounters can play in early development.

Parental and Peer Influences upon Accounting as a Subject and Accountancy as a Career

“…This is supported by [14] that proves the influence brought by peers does exist alongside that exerted by the parents.…”

How Toddler Peers Generate Coordinated Action: A Cross-Cultural Exploration

“…Studies of toddlers interacting with peers highlight the multiple difficulties children have generating coordinated action in the absence of a scaffolding partner until well into the second year of life (eig., Bakeman & Adamson, 1984;Bronson, 1981;Eckerman & Didow, 1988). From early in infancy, young peers are sociable with one another, directing smiles, vocalizations, and gestures to one another, and they influence each other's movements through space and which objects are contacted and manipulated.…”

"Children of the dream" revisited: 70 years of collective early child care in Israeli kibbutzim.

“…Recent research on infants and toddlers together (Eckerman & Didow, 1988) suggests that the observations just reported have captured a natural social capacity readily displayed by kibbutz children because of the intensive social character of their environment. Although infant sociability is viewed äs a natural capacity, it must be distinguished from social competence, which refers to effectiveness with peers through coordinated interactions and reciprocal actions within a relevant affective context.…”

“…Although infant sociability is viewed äs a natural capacity, it must be distinguished from social competence, which refers to effectiveness with peers through coordinated interactions and reciprocal actions within a relevant affective context. Early peer encounters have been thought to provide children with the social experience necessary to support the development of social competence (Eckerman & Didow, 1988;Howes, 1988a). Moreover, it has been suggested that peer familiarity facilitates social interaction and the development of specific relationships based on the continued presence of the partner (Doyle, Connolly, & Rivest, 1980;Howes, 1988a).…”