Infant Toddler Learning & Development Foundations

ules. Group care settings provide
many opportunities for children to
practice their impulse-control skills.
Peer interactions often offer natural
opportunities for young children to
practice impulse control, as they make
progress in learning about cooperative
play and sharing. Young children’s
understanding or lack of understanding
of requests made of them may be
one factor contributing to their
responses (Kaler and Kopp 1990).
Social Understanding
During the infant/toddler years,
children begin to develop an understanding
of the responses, communication,
emotional expression, and
actions of other people. This development
includes infants’ understanding
of what to expect from others, how to
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engage in back-and-forth social interactions,
and which social scripts are
to be used for which social situations.
“At each age, social cognitive understanding
contributes to social competence,
interpersonal sensitivity, and
an awareness of how the self relates to
other individuals and groups in a complex
social world” (Thompson 2006,
26). Social understanding is particularly
important because of the social
nature of humans and human life,
even in early infancy (Wellman and
Lagattuta 2000). Recent research suggests
that infants’ and toddlers’ social
understanding is related to how often
they experience adult communication
about the thoughts and emotions
of others (Taumoepeau and Ruffman
2008).
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT