Developmental Stages of Social Emotional Development in Children

Function

In healthy children, social-emotional stages develop on an expected trajectory, and monitoring these milestones is an imperative part of preventative health supervision visits. The caregiver's sensitive and available supportive role is essential to establish attachment and the skill set that follows.

Three distinct emotions are present from birth: anger, joy, and fear, which are revealed by universal facial expressions. Cognitive input is not required for emotional response at this stage. During the brief periods of alertness in the newborn period, newborns may return a mother's gaze. Soon after, infants begin to explore their faces.

1 to 2 Months of Age

The first measurable social milestone is around 1 to 2 months of age: infants begin to smile socially in response to parental high-pitched vocalizations or smiles. They recognize the smells and voices of their caregivers and respond to gentle touch. Infants can use a distinct facial expression to express emotions in an appropriate context after 2 months of age.

2 to 3 Months of Age

In the first 2 to 3 months, infants learn to regulate physiologically and need smooth routines. They progressively know how to calm themselves, give a responsive smile, and respond to gentle calming.

4 to 5 Months of Age

Sensitive cooperative interaction with caregivers helps infants learn how to manage tension. Around 4 months of age, turn-taking conversations (vocalizations) begin. Infants then learn to manipulate the environment. They let their caregivers know whether taking away their toy upsets them or if they are happy when held. A sensitive but firm response from the caregiver helps infants manage emotional stress. They can recognize the primary caregiver by sight at around 5 months of age. 

6 to 12 Months of Age

In between 6 to 12 months effective attachment relationships establish with a responsive caregiver. Stranger anxiety emerges as infants distinguish between the familiar and the unfamiliar. Infants become mutually engaged in their interactions with caregivers and seek a caregiver for comfort, help, and play. They show distress upon separation. Around 8 months of age, joint attention skills develop. Infants look in the same direction as their caregivers and follow their gaze. Eventually, they look back at the caregiver to show that they share the experience.

12 to 18 Months of Age

Between 12 to 18 months, infants learn to explore their environment with support from a caregiver. By 12 months of age, proto-imperative pointing emerges; in other words, infants request by pointing at the object of interest and integrating it with eye contact between the object and the caregiver. Proto-declarative pointing follows at 16 months of age when children point with eye-gaze coordination to show interest. Around 18 months of age, children bring objects to show or give to the caregiver.

Around 12 months of age, the child takes part in interactive play like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. They use gestures to wave bye-bye and communicate their interests and needs. At around 15 months of age, empathy and self-conscious emotions emerge. A child reacts by looking upset when they see someone cry or feel pride when applauded for doing a task. The child imitates his environment, helps with simple household tasks, and explores the environment more independently.

18 to 30 Months of Age

Between 18 and 30 months, individuation (autonomy) emerges. The confidence in the child-parent relationship and continued firm parenting help the child face environmental challenges on his own more persistently and enthusiastically. The child's temperament manifests itself more, and they are aggressive and reserved or friendly and cooperating. Around 18 to 24 months, they learn to pretend-play, such as talking on a toy phone or feeding a doll and playing next to or in parallel with another child. they may imitate other child's play and look at him but he cannot play in a cooperative, imaginative way with another child yet. During preschool years, they learn to manipulate their subjective emotions into a more socially accepted gesture. He uses a "poker face", and exaggerates or minimizes emotions for social etiquette. For example, they say thank you for a present he didn't like. The child refers to himself as "I" or "me," and possessiveness, "mine," and negativism "no" emerge.

30 to 54 Months of Age

Between 30 and 54 months, impulse control, gender roles, and peer relationship issues emerge. A caregiver plays a major role in helping preschoolers define values and learn flexible self-control. Testing limits on what behaviors are acceptable and how much autonomy they can exert is an expected phenomenon. Thoughtful parenting with a balance between setting limits and giving choices successfully establishes a child's sense of initiative and decreases anxiety from guilt or loss of control. At 30 months, pretend play skills emerge, and the child shows evidence of symbolic play, using an object as something different, like pretending a block to be a telephone or a bottle to feed a doll. The play scenarios become more complex with themes and storylines. By 3 years of age, the child engages more in interactive play, masters his aggression, and learns cooperation and sharing skills. They can play with 1 or 2 peers, with turn-taking play and joint goals. Imaginative and fantasy play begin by pretending to be a cat, and role-play skills develop. The child, however, cannot yet distinguish between reality and imagination, and it is common to be afraid of imaginary things. They master this skill to differentiate between real and imaginary around 4 years of age. They enjoy playing tricks on others and are worried about being tricked themselves. Imaginary scenarios and play skills are developing and becoming more complex. They can play with 3 to 4 peers, with more complex themes and pretend skills.

5 and 6 Years of Age

At 5 and 6 years of age, the child can follow simple rules and directions. They learn adult social skills like giving praise and apologizing for unintentional mistakes. They like to spend more time in peer groups and relate to a group of friends. Imaginative play gets more complex, and he likes to play dress, and act out his fantasies.

7 and 8 Years of Age

At 7 and 8 years of age, the child fully understands rules and regulations. They show a deeper understanding of relationships and responsibilities and can take charge of simple chores. Moral development furthers, and he learns more complex coping skills. At this age, a child explores new ideas and activities, and peers may test his beliefs. Children identify more with other children of similar gender and find a best friend in common.

9 and 10 Years of Age

At 9 and 10 years of age, peer and friend groups take precedence over family. Children at this age show increasing independent decision-making and a growing need for independence from family. Parents can use responsibilities and chores to earn time with friends. A positive, nurturing relationship with a caregiver with praise and affection and setting up a reasonable balance between independence and house rules builds self-confidence and self-assurance. Promoting supportive adult relationships and increasing opportunities to take part in positive community activities increases resilience.

Greater independence and commitment to peer groups drive the transition to adolescence. This includes indulging in risky behavior to explore uncertain emotions and impress peer groups. Social interactions include complex relationships, disagreements, breakups, new friendships, and long-lasting relations. Normally adolescents learn to cope with these stresses with healthy adult relationships and guidance to make independent decisions. As young adulthood approaches, school success and work-related activities become important. For a healthy transition to adulthood, positive and supportive adult guidance and opportunities to take part constructively in the community play a pivotal role.

Issues of Concern

The inability to reach age-appropriate milestones can be a manifestation of psychosocial disturbance and needs further exploration. Examples of early childhood social-emotional disturbance include autism, reactive attachment disorder, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, attention-deficit hyperactive disorder, bullying, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, among others.

Clinical Significance

A failure to follow the expected trajectory of social-emotional development can lead to undetected mental and emotional health problems. Adverse childhood experiences can alter development significantly. Thus, alongside screening for child development, actively screening for family dysfunction and supporting families in establishing a healthy, nurturing environment is vital. By having a thorough knowledge of developmental pathways and adverse childhood experiences, and having a close follow-up established with families in the medical home, pediatricians and medical professionals are in a prime position to identify risk factors and developmental delays timely.

Medical professionals taking care of children should begin with identifying and addressing the family's concerns, asking open-ended questions regarding social-emotional milestones, and intentionally observing parent-child interaction and the child's interaction with the environment, including themselves. While examining the patient, they should observe age-appropriate developmental interaction.  should give teenagers the opportunity to engage in health visits in a private and safe environment without a caregiver. Also, should be able to address questions about parenting advice. These include advice on temper tantrums and defiant behaviors, child care and preschool guidance, referring to parent training management when appropriate, and counseling on temperament differences and "goodness of fit" models. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and Bright Futures Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents emphasize active screening for developmental delays and environmental risk factors on top of clinical surveillance. This includes the use of standardized screening tools for social-emotional development and for environmental risks appropriate to the risk level of the population you serve. Environmental risk factors should include caregiver and family functioning, caregiver mental health, socio-economic stress, refugee or immigrant status, safety concerns, caregiver drug addiction, etc. AAP recommends screening for autism spectrum disorder at both the 18- and 24-month health supervision visits, and whenever concerns are raised. When using screening tests, one should be cognizant of some potential limitations including the inability to administer and score the screening tool correctly, using it as a diagnostic tool, failure to incorporate other available clinical data, and using a linguistic or culturally inappropriate tool.[5] 

If screening identifies any risk factor or delays, it should always follow with further assessment and evidence-based interventions. Screening for maternal depression, especially during the first year of childbirth, is important. Identifying and intervening for maternal depression early on can avoid attachment and social-emotional problems in the child later. With clear delays in social and language development, it is important to initiate services even before a confirmed diagnosis, as early intervention is the key. If the child is younger than 3 years should be referred to local early intervention services. A child 3 years of age or older should be referred to their school district. Anticipatory guidelines should include evidence-based strategies for age-appropriate behavioral interventions, such as the management of temper tantrums for toddlers. Implementing the use of developmental screening tools in clinical practice has shown an encouraging trend though still, a wide gap in practice remains.[6] Practices that have successfully established screening are struggling with coordinating referrals and monitoring progress.[7] We need further research to identify barriers to the use of standardized tools and the coordination of services and interventions.

Standardized Screening Instruments

Caregiver functioning

1. Adverse Childhood Experience Score
2. Parenting Stress Index-Short Form
3. Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale
4. Patient Health Questionnaire-2
5. Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Screening
6. Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale                                        

Temperament

• Carey Temperament Scales

Infancy to early childhood

1. Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional 
2. Survey of Well-Being of Young Children
3. Communication and Symbolic-Behavior Scale
4. Developmental Profile, Infant Toddler Checklist
5. Brief Infant-Social Emotional Assessment

Early childhood to adolescence

1. Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory
2. Pediatric Symptom Checklist
3. Pictorial Pediatric Symptom Checklist

Multidimensional

1. Infant-Toddler Social-Emotional Assessment
2. Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training (NCAST) Parent-Child Interaction Feeding and Teaching Scale
3. Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment
4. Behavior Assessment Scale for Children Second Edition
5. Connors Comprehensive Behavior Rating Scales
6. Child Symptom Inventories-4
7. Vanderbilt Parent and Teacher Assessment Scales

Single-dimension attention-deficit or hyperactivity disorder

1. Conners Third Edition
2. Attention Deficit Disorders Scale
3. Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scales

Single-dimension anxiety or depression

• Beck Youth Inventories

(Adapted from Duby JC, Social and Emotional Development. In: Voigt RG, Macias MM, Myers SM, eds. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Elk Grove Village, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics; 2011:241–248)

Enhancing Healthcare Team Outcomes

Optimal child growth and development need to orchestrate enhanced communication between the pediatrician/primary care provider and various medical specialties, including but not limited to the mother's obstetrician, nursery or neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) teams, nursing staff, psychology, psychiatry, child life, and social work. Twenty percent to 25% of children seen in primary care clinics experience social-emotional problems that are clinically significant. Access to mental health services, parenting classes, and education is limited due to stigmatization, cost, and availability. In 2004, the AAP organized a Task Force on Mental Health to enhance identification and intervention for social-emotional problems in primary care pediatric practice. One of the key findings in its report was having integrated models of care with collaboration with psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and others in the community to formulate a comprehensive care plan. 

With help from other professionals, primary care practice should be able to put together a list of clinical and family concerns, coach the family on self-management techniques, and create a resource list including professionals involved in care, community partners available to the family and child, and treatment goals and strategies.[8] Building a comprehensive system of care with a focus on prevention and early intervention can address the unmet needs of social-emotional development and behavioral problems in children. To achieve such a system, it is imperative to establish training models with an integrated system of care. Such a model will encourage and train professionals to collaborate mutually to prevent, identify, consult, educate, and plan treatment for patients.[9]