Supporting Children’s Social Development: Strategies for Parents and Caregivers

The Pyramid Model is comprised of practices that are implemented by teachers and families. This webpage contains ideas, resources, and illustrations of strategies that might be used to implement Pyramid Model practices and promote young children’s social and emotional competence in a classroom setting.

This provides practical tips for caregivers to help infants and toddlers develop empathy and understand that others have different thoughts and feelings than they do.

This article provides information on teaching politeness to young children.

This resource describes why social and emotional health matters, shows how to build trusting relationships and teach social/emotional skills to young children.

In this 80-minute video, Dr. Lilian Katz discusses ways of defining social competence in the early years, provides an overview of what the research indicates must be achieved in the early years, and indicates ways that adults—parents and professionals—can support and strengthen this important aspect of young children’s development.

This parenting resource provides information on how to help infants and toddlers develop strong relationships with the people in their lives. Through relationships, children discover who they are and learn to understand others.

This parenting resource provides information on how to help children develop the self-confidence they need for future success. Self-confidence is an essential ingredient for all aspects of a child’s healthy development and a key ingredient for school success.

This article addresses baby’s temperament and how a baby’s temperamental traits will influence the way caregivers interact with them. The more a baby’s signals are paid attention to and caregivers learn to respond appropriately to their unique personality, the calmer and more predictable life will be in the early months.