The development of social skills

This chapter covers the normal development of social skills and factors that affect its development. All parents want their children to be socially competent. Parents have a huge responsibility in the upbringing of their children, especially in the teaching of general values and interpersonal relationships. Behavioural geneticists have spent many years trying to tease out the effects of inborn dispositional influences and the effects of the human environment on the children’s temperament and social behaviour. And there is wide consensus that both genetic and environmental influences determine virtually every aspect of human development, including the development of social competence. By the end of the first year, most children are beginning to show the signs of social competence. They are able to coordinate attention between objects and people, engage in social exchanges and communicate intentionality, using gestures and sounds that have shared meanings. These skills of joint attention and symbolic communication are important to the development of social competence.