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The early sociability of toddlers: The origins of teaching

Kiyobumi Kawakami1

  • 1University of the Sacred Heart, 4-3-1, Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8938, Japan.

Infant Behavior & Development
|February 18, 2014
PubMed

Insights

Toddlers demonstrated increasing person-directed behaviors toward an observer in a preschool setting. This study precisely classifies these early teaching behaviors, offering insights into the origins of teaching.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Early Childhood Education

Background:

  • Understanding the development of social behaviors in toddlers is crucial.
  • Early interactions provide foundational insights into social learning.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To longitudinally observe and classify toddlers' person-directed behaviors.
  • To identify the origins of teaching behaviors in early childhood.

Main Methods:

  • Naturalistic observation of 17 toddlers in a preschool setting.
  • Recording person-directed behaviors using an IC recorder over 21 hours across 3 blocks.
  • Classifying observed toddler teaching behaviors.

Main Results:

  • Toddlers' person-directed behaviors toward the observer significantly increased across observation blocks.
  • A precise classification of toddlers' teaching behaviors was developed.

Conclusions:

  • The study provides empirical evidence for the developmental increase in toddlers' social engagement.
  • The developed classification system marks a significant step in understanding the origins of teaching.

Keywords:
Person-directed behaviorsTeachingToddlers

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