Child

Helping children develop friendships

October 31, 2012
What can be done?
  • Help parents to use conflict situations between brothers and sisters as an opportunity to teach important social skills such as peaceful conflict resolution.
  • Avoid putting children with aggressive traits together in the same group.
  • Implement social skills training in the pre-school years.
  • Initiate intervention programs that support the development of social behaviour skills.
  • Two types of intervention programs have been shown to be effective: Universal programs, aimed at promoting social skills in all the children of a group, and Targeted programs, specifically geared toward children who have problems in their social relationships.These programs attempt to improve the children’s social behaviour skills and their peer relationships.
  • Involve families, teachers and peers in intervention programs.

Become informed about the training methods used in the following promising programs:

Universal pre-school programs
  • I Can Problem Solve (ICPS)
  • Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS)
Targeted programs for pre-school children with aggressive behaviour problems
  • Incredible Years Dinosaur Social Skills
  • Problem Solving Curriculum
Targeted program for pre-school children who are socially isolated and who come from low-income families
  • The Play Buddy

This article is a publication from the Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development.

The Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development identifies and summarizes the best scientific work on the social and emotional development of young children. It disseminates this knowledge to a variety of audiences in formats and languages adapted to their needs.

For a more in-depth understanding of child peer relations, consult our experts’ articles in the Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development, available here.

Peer relations: Supporting children to develop friendship. In: Tremblay RE, Barr RG, Peters RDeV, Boivin M, eds. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. Montreal, Quebec: Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development; 2009. Available here. Accessed September 2010.

Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development (CEECD)

The mandate of the CEECD is to foster the dissemination of scientific knowledge on the development of young children with an emphasis, but not exclusively, on the social and emotional development and on the services and policies that influence this development.

To know more
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