While many studies have examined development in toddlers and preschoolers, few have looked at infants to see which early social skills are linked to later social and cognitive abilities.
In a new longitudinal study, Rechele Brooks and Andrew Meltzoff of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) at the University of Washington characterized the development of social behaviors as children grew from infanthood until preschool-age.
The researchers studied gaze-following in infants, vocabulary size in toddlers, and a social-cognitive attribute known as "theory of mind" in preschoolers. The study, which is published in the February 2015 issue of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, gives insights into how these behaviors serve as building blocks for social cognition.
"The research suggests that before children learn to talk, they are using strategies other than language to understand the people around them," said Brooks, an I-LABS research assistant professor. "By linking early signs of social behavior with later skills, we are able to see a trajectory of social and cognitive development."
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