Socialization

Social Participation

• helps support occupational engagement for children

• involves many performance skills that involve both communication and cognition

• relies heavily on a child's ability to communicate

Developmental Milestones

• Birth to 6 months:

  • social behaviors include: cooing, smiling, laughing, crying

  • communicates through facial expressions

• 6-12 months: 

  • begins to show preference for certain adults

  • may briefly interact with another infant - parallel play is common

  • may show some stranger anxiety as this age

  • begin to look for feedback from others on how to act or react

• 12-18 months:

  • better able to move away from a parent or preferred caregiver

  • responds more to others facial expressions, used as feedback

• 18-24 months:

  • parallel play is common - mostly prefer play with adults over other kids

  • begins to show more emotions, such as frustration, sympathy, anger

  • laughing at others' silliness

• 24-36 months:

  • begin to seek out companions to play with

  • cooperative play, including taking turns

  • stranger anxiety returns and kids become possessive of preferred adults

• 3-4 years:

  • prefers to play with other children vs adults and seek out playmates

  • begins to develop friendships, and will prefer to play with same-sex children

• 4-5 years:

  • improved understanding of social roles of friendships

  • will act based on parent or familiar caregiver roles

Evaluation & Assessments

• SP-2 & SPM - sensory-based standardized questionnaires to assess socialization

• you have to assess socialization in relation to all areas because they interconnect to impact socialization - looking at it in isolation is not effective

Intervention

Goals

• interventions should address:

  • specific social behaviors

  • awareness of social rules

  • understanding of other perspectives'

  • executive functioning skills

  • problem-solving skills

• Includes performance skills such as:

  • Approaches/starts

  • Times responses

  • Positions

  • Pacing

  • Concludes/disengages

  • Produces speech

  • Places Self

  • Expresses emotions

  • Moves 

  • Transitions

  • Walks 

  • Inquires

  • Initiates 

  • Navigates 

  • Attends

  • Notices/responds

  • Speaks fluently 

  • Produces speech

  • Aligns

  • Accommodates

Considerations

• modeling appropriate behaviors & talking through them

• social stories and scripting can help kids understand what to expect

• ensure that child has a way to communicate with others for socialization

  • AAC

  • Visuals/PECS

• social skills groups