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Social skills 'learned by talk about feelings', study finds
13 May 2009
The study followed children aged three to 12, measuring their social understanding using interviews, questionnaires, assessments of social understanding, observation of mental state and talk between mothers and children. Researchers found that children whose mothers talked to them about people's mental states, such as feelings, beliefs, wants, particularly between the ages of three and five, developed better social understanding than children whose mothers did not.
The study also found the children who had the most sophisticated social understanding exhibited the most negative behaviour towards their mother.
(Nursery World, 13 May 2009)
