Personal and Social Development:

Personal and social development is the setting for how a child interacts with the world, and how they begin to assert themselves in the world. Personal and social development in children evolves through the relationships established with their parents and caregivers, and their success or lack of success in approaching the world as they grow and develop. Component concepts in this domain include: self-concept, self-control, approaches to learning, interaction with others and conflict resolution.

Indicators for personal and social development for three year olds include:

• Starts to show self direction in actions
• Seeks help when encountering a problem
• Interacts with one or more children

Indicators for personal and social development for four year olds include:

• Shows some self direction in actions
• Persists in task and seeks help when encountering a problem
• Interacts easily with one or more children, beginning to play or work cooperatively

 Indicators for personal and social development for five year olds include:

• Shows initiative and self-direction in actions
• Sustains attention to a task over a period of time, even after encountering problems
• Interacts easily with one or more children when playing or working cooperatively.

Parents can help children in the personal and social domain by:

• Taking the opportunity to hold children and help the bonding that children need to have with adults to learn that they will be taken care of;
• Celebrating and encouraging when children have successes (first using a cup, feeding themselves, first steps, first words, etc.);
• Sharing on a regular basis with their children family pictures including the children over a period of time so that a child can see how they have changed, grown, matured;
• Helping children establish trusting relationships with others – modeling how people interact and talk with one another, and helping them to begin friendships with neighbors and others;
• Encouraging children to participate in more sophisticated activities as they gain mastery in other areas;
• Showing you are proud of a child’s efforts by posting their art work on the refrigerator or wall at home;
• Helping children to begin to understand their own feelings, and the feelings of others (after a disagreement, etc.)
• Reading books with your child about other children and their situations and discussing the book after reading;
• Talking with children while watching television about the program and what was real and what was fantasy;
• Helping a child solve a problem by asking appropriate questions and getting them to think through the issues, rather than just telling a child an answer.

The Personal and Social domain refers to a child’s feeling about themselves, and include a child’s view of themselves as learners, and their sense of responsibility to themselves and others.

The Personal and Social domain also refers to the social development including children’s interaction with peers and adults. Of special importance are the skills that children show they are acquiring while making friends, solving conflicts, and functioning effectively in groups.

The performance indicators listed above are from the Work Sampling System Omnibus Guidelines. For more information on the Work Sampling System, go to http://www.pearsonearlylearning.com/index.html

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