Social Interaction and the Development of Children's Understanding

This book unites research and theoretical work that addresses the relations between social interaction and the development of children's understanding. Contributors present and discuss research on the roles adults and/or peers play in children's development. They report results of research on social interaction and the development of preschool-aged and elementary school children's understanding in areas such as: use of metacognitive strategies, understanding of social events, moral and affective development, use of planning skills, knowledge of social conventions, and development of play interests. Across all contexts, the role of others is discussed as providing support, direction, or challenge for children's developing understanding. Changes in children's understanding, in turn, simultaneously inform interactional adjustments by both children and others. It is the recognition and consideration of this complementary relationsip between developing understanding and organization of social interactions that provies the volume's unifying theme.