There are many exciting changes happening within a preschooler’s development. Most notably, children start to form important social skills and have increased capacity for managing their own emotions. Social and emotional skills are important throughout life because they help children regulate themselves, understand others, and assist in forming positive relationships. Preschoolers are also learning important life skills during this time. They are becoming increasingly independent and are capable of many adaptive skills, such as using the bathroom independently and dressing themselves.

Caregivers continue to play an important role in a child’s daily life. Preschoolers benefit from nurturing relationships that are supportive but also allow them to work through learning on their own. During the preschool years, we will notice that children who have experienced significant stress, trauma, or delays in their development as infants and toddlers will experience even further difficulties during this stage. Children who experience barriers in their development can “exhibit social and emotional difficulties and tend to have trouble following directions and participating in learning activities” (Ho & Funk, 2018).

In this chapter, we will discuss typical social, emotional, adaptive, and identity milestones in the preschool years. We will also address the diverse cultural and social variables that impact children during this stage of development.

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to do the following:

1. Identify the milestones of preschoolers’ social and emotional development.
2. Explore the development of adaptive skills and identity formation.
3. Describe the role of play in relation to developmental importance.
4. Analyze the impact of caregivers and environmental influences on social, emotional, adaptive, and identity development.

Key Terms

Throughout this chapter, you will be introduced to important key terms that will help deepen your understanding of preschooler development:

• Child abuse: the physical, sexual, or emotional mistreatment or neglect of a child or children
• Emotional abuse: a pattern of behavior in which a caregiver insults, humiliates, instills fear in, or controls another person
• Initiative versus guilt: the third stage of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development in which a child establishes taking initiative and has a sense of power over what happens to them
• Neglect: a form of abuse in which a caregiver fails to provide adequate care for someone they are responsible for
• Personality: an individual’s consistent pattern of feeling, thinking, and behaving
• Physical abuse: a form of abuse that involves physical aggression directed at another person
• Protective factors: circumstances or traits that help a child cope with stressful events
• Self-esteem: an evaluative judgment about who we are
• Sexual abuse: a form of abuse in which a person abuses another for sexual stimulation
• Social competence: the ability to get along with others

Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives

“Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives” by Christina Belli is licensed under CC BY 4.0.