The Origins of Social Skills and Interaction among Playgroup Toddlers

Abstract

MUELLER, EDWARD, and BRENNER, JEFFREY. The Origins of Social Skills and Interaction among Playgroup Toddlers. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 854-861. A short-term longitudinal design permitted assessment of the growth of toddler social interaction in playgroups. The study analyzed social interaction sequences as well as the behavioral components of social interaction. In both playgroups the amount of peer interaction increased in significant linear fashion. Acquainted toddlers more frequently engaged in sustained social interactions than did less acquainted age-mates. They also utilized more coordinated social behaviors in their interactions. In the environment studied here, peer social relations originated during object-focused contacts. It was concluded that parallel play, rather than merely reflecting an inadequacy of early peer relations, represents a natural facilitating context for such relations. Participation in peer social interaction was itself responsible for the increase in skilled behavior among peer-experienced toddlers. Social interaction was seen as a source of growing social skill and not only its product.