Social referencing is a phenomenon when babies and young children learn to respond according to their parents’ expressions and those around them. But what is the significance of “social referencing in a child’s development?” and how does it help your little ones develop emotions? This post discusses the principle of social referencing and how it impacts a child’s overall growth and development.
What Is Social Referencing In Infants?
The definition of Social referencing psychology is the process by which infants take cues from emotive displays of adults (parents or caregivers) to form their responses to certain events or their environment and adjust their behavior towards other people and objects. The affective or emotive display of adults can be through facial expressions, vocal sounds or body language. Social referencing is a vital tool that helps infants to get a sense of their new environment and the people and objects that form a part of it (1).
Children Using Social Referencing
Infants as young as six months of age begin to use social referencing as a way to gain deeper understanding of their immediate environment. As they grow older, kids begin to use social referencing more than earlier. By the age of 18 months, your child may be using your affective displays to form responses for all his actions. Babies may use social referencing for many things. For example, he sees a new shiny object on the floor and is obviously intrigued by it. He looks at you to see if it is okay for him to touch it. Your smile or frown can act as referencing tools for your baby and will determine if he proceeds to touch the object or avoid it.
The Role Of Social Referencing In Your Child’s Development
Not much clinical research exists on the relation between development of cognitive skills and social referencing. It is also not clear how social referencing differs for every individual. But researchers have pointed out many ways by which social referencing aids a child’s development.
Using Social Referencing For Your Child’s Development
Parents and caregivers can use social referencing for babies and toddlers as a teaching tool. You can do so by being more mindful about how you react to people or situations and how you keep the ambiguity out of your body language and voice to a minimum.
