School Aged Developmental Milestones

Social & Emotional Development (interacting with others, controlling emotion)

This area of development involves learning to interact with other people, and to understand and control your own emotions. Babies start to develop relationships with the people around them right from birth, but the process of learning to communicate, share, and interact with others takes many years to develop. Developing the ability to control your emotions and behavior is also a long process. Children continue to develop their social-emotional skills well into their teenage years, or even young adulthood.

Below are some of the typical developmental milestones for social-emotional skills in school aged children up to 7 years old. After the milestones, are some “red flags” that might indicate a concern.

Between the ages of 5-7 years, your child will:

• Measure his performance against others
• Feel more comfortable spending time at other places without you, such as a relative’s or friends’ house
• Continue to develop her social skills by playing with other children in a variety of situations
• Be able to communicate with others without your help
• Possibly want to be around you more at age 5 than at age 4. By age 8, he will probably prefer being around his peers.
• Start to feel sensitive about how other children feel about him

Red Flags for Social-Emotional Development (school-aged)

If you have some of the following concerns, you may want to ask for help from your child’s teacher. Your teacher may recommend that you seek further help from your doctor or another health professional such as a psychologist, mental health clinician, speech-language pathologist, or an occupational therapist.

• He is not interested in playing with other children
• She is not able to share or take turns with other children
• He is extremely “rigid” about routines, and becomes extremely upset when things are changed
• She has extreme difficulty separating from you
• He is too passive or fearful, and does not want to try things other children his age are doing
• She has extreme fears that interfere with daily activities

If you have concerns about your child at any age, please feel free to contact us to speak to a professional. You can also make a referral to our centre.