5 ms·

For basic social skills development for ages ~4-7 it only matters that they are around other children. Ideally this is with a lot of unstructured time. The "qua

by ch4s3 4y ago

For basic social skills development for ages ~4-7 it only matters that they are around other children. Ideally this is with a lot of unstructured time. The "quality" of the other 5 year olds doesn't matter, humans are social animals and childhood play with other children is know to be critical in development. Closing schools for a year in much of the US was an unmitigated disaster for childhood development. No other OECD nation did this.

CuriouslyC 4y ago
I can tell you with 100% certainty that by age 7 the average quality of peers has diverged significantly between bad schools and good ones. Do you want your children hanging out with defiant, unmotivated children who view school as a jail and run around shooting spitballs, spewing racial slurs, and even bringing weapons to school?
- ch4s3 4y ago
  You're totally missing the thrust of the discussion. Being around other children is necessary for normal language acquisition, learning emotional regulation, self-regulation, speech skills, and on and on. Children below a certain age HAVE to be around other children to develop normally. This is well established and has nothing to do with the proper behavior or socioeconomic status of the other children.
  - naasking 4y ago
    > You're totally missing the thrust of the discussion. Being around other children is necessary for normal language acquisition, learning emotional regulation, self-regulation, speech skills, and on and on. Are you suggesting that children can't learn these skills from adults, but must learn them from other children for some reason?
    - ch4s3 4y ago
      > Are you suggesting that children can't learn these skills from adults It is well established that normal development REQUIRES contact with other children. Any specialist in early childhood development or education will tell you this. I'm in no way an expert here, but I've never once seen an expert claim that adult contact substitutes for peer contact in developing these skills.
      - zaphar 4y ago
        Anecdotal evidence only but I and my two brothers were all homeschooled and learned these skills from our parents. There is a great deal opinion among child development experts that is not necessarily backed up by evidence. I would need to see some peer reviewed studies before I would be willing to believe these assertions. I suspect that the truth is that children need play and interaction to build social skills but that whether this involves other children in any specific quantity is irrelevant. The challenge in the pandemic of course is that the parents did not really have capacity to engage in those activities due to their own jobs and Video Conferencing is a very poor substitute. But suggesting that it has to be other children is probably incorrect. It's just a hypothesis on my part though.
        ch4s3 4y ago
        > I and my two brothers I think you're probably underestimating how much you learned this from each other. > but that whether this involves other children in any specific quantity is irrelevant. Again, this very much runs contrary to the general consensus about childhood development. If you disagree, then you need to bring some facts and research to the argument.
        zaphar 4y ago
        I have only anecdotal evidence so this is a fair point. However I'll point out that I have not seen the experts provide facts or research either so it appears that they have the same obligation. In fact a cursory survey of the research I can publicly get access to indicates that parent-child, or teacher-child interactions are considered very essential for moral and social development and there is very little mention that I can find of inter-child interactions as a critical part. Most of the research that I can find highlights the importance of adult-child interactions. If you can point me to some studies that counteract that I'm interested.

by ch4s3 4y ago

CuriouslyC 4y ago

I can tell you with 100% certainty that by age 7 the average quality of peers has diverged significantly between bad schools and good ones. Do you want your children hanging out with defiant, unmotivated children who view school as a jail and run around shooting spitballs, spewing racial slurs, and even bringing weapons to school?

ch4s3 4y ago
You're totally missing the thrust of the discussion. Being around other children is necessary for normal language acquisition, learning emotional regulation, self-regulation, speech skills, and on and on. Children below a certain age HAVE to be around other children to develop normally. This is well established and has nothing to do with the proper behavior or socioeconomic status of the other children.
- naasking 4y ago
  > You're totally missing the thrust of the discussion. Being around other children is necessary for normal language acquisition, learning emotional regulation, self-regulation, speech skills, and on and on. Are you suggesting that children can't learn these skills from adults, but must learn them from other children for some reason?
  - ch4s3 4y ago
    > Are you suggesting that children can't learn these skills from adults It is well established that normal development REQUIRES contact with other children. Any specialist in early childhood development or education will tell you this. I'm in no way an expert here, but I've never once seen an expert claim that adult contact substitutes for peer contact in developing these skills.
    - zaphar 4y ago
      Anecdotal evidence only but I and my two brothers were all homeschooled and learned these skills from our parents. There is a great deal opinion among child development experts that is not necessarily backed up by evidence. I would need to see some peer reviewed studies before I would be willing to believe these assertions. I suspect that the truth is that children need play and interaction to build social skills but that whether this involves other children in any specific quantity is irrelevant. The challenge in the pandemic of course is that the parents did not really have capacity to engage in those activities due to their own jobs and Video Conferencing is a very poor substitute. But suggesting that it has to be other children is probably incorrect. It's just a hypothesis on my part though.
      - ch4s3 4y ago
        > I and my two brothers I think you're probably underestimating how much you learned this from each other. > but that whether this involves other children in any specific quantity is irrelevant. Again, this very much runs contrary to the general consensus about childhood development. If you disagree, then you need to bring some facts and research to the argument.
        zaphar 4y ago
        I have only anecdotal evidence so this is a fair point. However I'll point out that I have not seen the experts provide facts or research either so it appears that they have the same obligation. In fact a cursory survey of the research I can publicly get access to indicates that parent-child, or teacher-child interactions are considered very essential for moral and social development and there is very little mention that I can find of inter-child interactions as a critical part. Most of the research that I can find highlights the importance of adult-child interactions. If you can point me to some studies that counteract that I'm interested.