Influences on social development
[TODO: summary] Social development begins at birth and is influenced by a variety of factors. This article examines the key factors influencing the development of social skills and behaviors.
Social development begins from the earliest days of babies’ lives and is strongly influenced by their experiences with their parents and caregivers. Parents and care givers, in turn, are influenced by the temperament and behavior of infants from the earliest days. Some babies are more difficult than others and some parents will be able to cope with difficult babies with more confidence than others. In other words, development is a dynamic and interactive process in which the behaviors of children and parents influence each other, and the children’s ongoing experiences influence their development in addition to their biological makeup. In this section, four main influences on social development are highlighted briefly - temperament and personality, language and cognitive abilities, family environments, and expectations and management. The evidence of their influence on outcomes for children with Down syndrome will be returned to later in each section when discussing the different aspects of social development.
Temperament and personality
Children’s behavior and social development is influenced by temperament and personality. Some children are anxious in temperament, others placid and calm. Some children are outgoing and sociable, others are shy and find it less easy to make friends. Research studies indicate that the range of temperamental and personality characteristics among children with Down syndrome is the same as the range observed in typically developing children. There is little evidence to support the stereotype which suggests that all children with Down syndrome are invariably placid and happy.[TODO: references 3]
Temperament is used to describe the basic behavioral style of children.[TODO: references 23]
These figures illustrate that the range of temperaments seen in the infants with Down syndrome was the same as the range seen in the typically developing children. The figures also illustrate the range of individual differences in the temperaments of the infants with Down syndrome, making clear that the stereotypes which suggest that all the children are the same are not supported by the evidence. This information also indicates that, like typically developing children, some children with Down syndrome will be more difficult to manage than others and that some will have more social difficulties than others, as a result of temperamental differences.
Some children and teenagers with Down syndrome, like other children, will have additional difficulties such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD), obsessional compulsive disorders (OCD), anxiety or depression, which should be diagnosed and treated appropriately. Any of these additional difficulties will affect their social functioning.
Language and cognitive abilities
Children’s social development is influenced by their understanding of the world around them and the behavior of others, therefore children with delayed cognitive (mental) development are likely to have more difficulty in becoming socially competent and in controlling or self-regulating their behavior. They will be older before they understand the reason why certain behaviors may be dangerous for example.
Children’s rate of progress with language development will also influence all aspects of their social development. As children’s understanding of language develops, it is possible to reason with them and explain why certain behaviors are desirable and others are not (though this can also be effectively communicated in non-verbal ways, with actions and gestures, in most situations). As their language and communication skills develop, children experience less frustration and can explain how they feel or ask for what they want. In addition, in typical development, language is also important in self-regulation as children use silent or private speech to control their own behavior and this also seems to be true for children and teenagers with Down syndrome. [TODO: references 28]
It is likely, therefore, that those children with Down syndrome who progress more slowly than most in language and cognitive development will be more at risk for behavior and social difficulties and will be more demanding to manage for longer periods of time during childhood. For almost all children with Down syndrome, their social competence and behavior steadily improves with increasing age.[TODO: references 4]
Family environments
All children are influenced by their experiences within their families and the relationships within families, the personalities and the interpersonal communication within families vary a great deal. Children need to feel loved, wanted and emotionally secure as well as having their basic needs for warmth, food and care met. Some families experience more difficulties than others in establishing a supportive emotional climate as well as good communication between members of the family. In these families, the task of bringing up children will be more difficult than in cohesive and emotionally stable families and children in these families are likely to have more social and behavioral difficulties and to do less well in school.
Some families have many more social disadvantages than others, such as unemployment, one parent coping alone, poor housing, or poverty. Parents who are disadvantaged in any of these ways will find parenting more difficult and their children will tend to be more at risk for developmental difficulties.
The research indicates that these family differences have the same effects on the progress of children with Down syndrome as they do for other children. [TODO: references 15-18]
Expectations and management
Bringing up children is a difficult task and the progress of all children is influenced by the expectations in the family and by parents’ management skills. All children respond to the social feedback that they receive about themselves, their behavior and the way in which they are expected to behave. Parents have different expectations for the behavior of a two year old compared with their expectations for the behavior of a five year old. Parents vary in their requirements for good behavior and in their ability to manage difficult behavior. These variations in behavior expectations and management skills influence the social development of children in all families.
When a child has a disability, it is often much more difficult for parents to know what expectations and demands for good behavior are appropriate. Do they judge these on the basis of the child’s developmental skills or on the child’s chronological age? It is easy to ‘baby’ a child with a disability - that is, to treat them as if they are younger than they are - and the child may then behave in immature ways for longer than is necessary.
The delays in cognitive and language development experienced by most children with Down syndrome may make them more difficult to manage in some ways. Routines and quite clear behavior expectations help the child to understand the rules more easily. [TODO: references 16] In other words, there may be less room for more flexible attitudes to behavior and parents may benefit from support and guidelines on the need for good behavior management from the first year of the child’s life.
Teachers and other carers also need to be encouraged to expect and reward good behavior. In preschool and school, children with Down syndrome should be expected to behave in socially age-appropriate ways and to conform to the school routines. In our experience over many years, behavior difficulties arising in school or in community settings are most often the result of inappropriate management.
However, children with Down syndrome can be quite challenging, often in naughty ways, as they often see how far they can push the boundaries in a new situation. Some of these behaviors may be learning and exploratory behaviors. Children with Down syndrome often use their good understanding of the behavior of others to get the reactions that they want, for example running away, which usually results in being chased, and a variety of other behaviors such as touching other children’s work or making a noise in class to gain the teacher’s attention.
For some children, behavior is not easy to change and if a child is persistently difficult in school and at home, parents and teachers will have to work together to develop common strategies in order to change the behavior.
