Early childhood social development proccess.

Social development is the process through which children learn about their society and the proper ways to act within it. It is a process through which behaviours, perspectives, and attitudes are learned. For example, consider a child watching their sibling attempting to put a screw in a wall. The sibling cannot do it alone, so they ask a parent for help. With the parent's assistance, the sibling is able to affix the object to the wall. Thus, the observing child learns that while they are not able to screw things in by themselves, they can do it with assistance.

The process of social development does not stop after childhood. In fact, it occurs continuously through all stages of life. Social development is made further complex as individuals learn that certain behaviour's are expected in some circumstances or settings, but not allowed or possible in others. For this reason, social development is extremely important to study and understand, in order to successfully navigate social situations.

Other reasons to study and understand social development include:

  • Gaining knowledge about how children acquire new abilities.
  • Learning about how habits are formed.
  • Discovering how behaviour and habit development vary from culture to culture.




                                                              Social Development Model


This visualization of the Social Development Theory of Vygotsky shows the overlap of the Zone of Proximal Development with What I Can Do With Help.

Color image. This is a visualization of the social development theory of Vygotsky.

Vygotsky's Theory vs. Piaget's Theory

Another prominent theorist in the field of child development was Jean Piaget, a psychologist from Switzerland. Piaget's theory differs from Vygotsky's in several significant ways:

  1. Piaget states that individuals develop their behaviours and habits cognitively, meaning in isolation from the actions of others. Vygotsky places paramount importance on society in the development of an individual's actions.
  2. Vygotsky places more emphasis on the role of the surrounding culture and language on social development than Piaget does.
  3. Vygotsky states that the process of social development is gradual, whereas Piaget divides social development into concrete stages based on age.


Jean Piaget was a prominent figure in the field of child development and behaviour.

Black and white image. Jean Piaget developed his own social development theory, which was significantly different than that of Vygotsky.

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