Relationships with Other Children

Watching how another child plays, trying to join, and then learning to take turns, cooperate, and handle disagreement all require real peer experience and usable examples. Parents can observe first and wait. When a child does not know what to do, model one appropriate social action, then gradually step back so the child has room to practice.

0–9 months: Other children become worth watching. Attending to a peer's movements and play materials is important experience before participation.
9–18 months: Simple imitation creates back-and-forth interaction. Similar sounds and actions can connect two children's behavior without requiring a shared task from the start.
18 months–3 years: Try to cooperate around one purpose. Moving from parallel play toward passing, dividing roles, or helping requires familiarity and occasional adult modeling.
3–5 years: Join, sustain, and negotiate more actively. Finding a partner, taking conversational turns, proposing solutions, and adjusting an entry strategy give relationships more ways to continue.

Below are selected skills to notice at specific ages. Age is a developmental reference point; understand each skill alongside what you see in everyday life.

6 months

Watch another child attentively when he/she is playing with a toy.

What to notice: While another child plays, does your baby keep attending to that child's actions and toys? Notice interest in a peer without expecting interaction, sharing, or joining yet.

How to support it: Observation helps another child's actions and reactions become familiar before participation. Offer safe, unhurried chances to be together, follow your baby's gaze with a brief response, and allow watching without acting.

Keep in mind: Do not force contact to make the children play or treat parallel attention as social failure.

15 months

Participates in simple imitation games, such as making similar sounds or running after another child.

What to notice: Does your child imitate a peer's sound or action in a way that creates a simple back-and-forth exchange? Notice whether the behaviors connect, not only whether both children happen to do something similar.

How to support it: Imitation provides a route into interaction that does not depend on complex language. Model an easy action, help the children notice one another, then leave time for their own exchange.

Keep in mind: Avoid directing every turn or expecting immediate role division or stable cooperation.

2½ years (30 months)

Joins in play with other children by doing joint activities with a common goal, such as building block structures with others or pretending to eat together.

What to notice: Does your child contribute to a peer's action toward the same goal, such as passing, carrying together, or sharing a pretend role? Notice emerging coordination without expecting smooth cooperation throughout.

How to support it: Cooperation grows when children understand what the other person is doing and see how their own action helps a shared purpose. Make the play familiar, model one simple division of roles, help briefly when the actions stop connecting, then step back.

Keep in mind: Even one self-initiated contribution matters.

3½ years (42 months)

Engages in prosocial behaviors with other children with prompting from adults, such as sharing and taking turns with materials and in conversations.

What to notice: With a reminder, does your child take turns, share, or leave room for a peer to speak? Notice use of a social strategy with support, not spontaneous success every time.

How to support it: Peer expectations gain meaning through real reactions; knowing a rule is not the same as being able to use it. Model one workable action, help your child notice the peer's response, and gradually reduce prompts.

Keep in mind: Do not force a child to surrender something they are using or say just share without a way to negotiate and wait.

4 years (48 months)

Asks to go play with children if none are around, like “Can I play with Alex?”

What to notice: When no peer is present, does your child suggest finding a friend to play with? Notice desire for peer connection rather than how often they socialize or how many friends they have.

How to support it: Positive past interactions can support actively seeking a peer and turn a chance meeting into an anticipated relationship. Respond to whom the child wants to see and what they hope to do, offer a feasible play opportunity, and explain another family's schedule.

Keep in mind: Respect the need for time alone.

4½ years (54 months)

Demonstrates prosocial behaviors with other children with and without prompting from adults, such as taking turns in conversations and interactions with other children.

What to notice: Does your child sometimes take turns, respond, or consider a peer's participation without a reminder? Notice increasing self-direction without expecting every conflict or sharing situation to be adult-free.

How to support it: Experience gradually makes appropriate social action one of the child's own choices. Respond specifically to how they made room for someone else; model or prompt again when difficulty arises, then let interaction continue.

Keep in mind: One conflict does not erase the strategies the child uses in other contexts.

Suggests and/or uses basic solutions to common conflicts, such as sharing and taking turns.

What to notice: When children disagree, does your child propose or use a concrete strategy such as taking turns? Notice whether the strategy addresses both sides, not merely whether they say the words take turns or submit to a ruling.

How to support it: Resolving conflict begins with understanding each person's need and finding a plan both can carry out. Help state the problem, model a negotiation frame, and let the children propose, choose, and try a solution.

Keep in mind: If it fails, revise it rather than quickly deciding a winner.

5 years (60 months)

Uses a variety of skills for entering social situations with other children, such as suggesting something to do together, joining an existing activity, or sharing a toy.

What to notice: When trying to join, can your child choose a strategy suited to the play, such as making a proposal, following the existing idea, or offering a material? Notice flexible entry without requiring acceptance every time.

How to support it: Joining a group requires observing what others are doing and connecting one's own action to it. If your child does not know how to begin, model one appropriate move, help interpret the peer's response, then return the attempt to the child.

Keep in mind: Support adjustment or another opportunity after rejection rather than using one outcome as a judgment of popularity.

Sources and notes

Better Parenting’s child-development framework draws in part on the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five. For this pathway, you can also review Head Start’s Relationships with Other Children Effective Practice Guide. Official framework sources inform domain, sub-domain, goal, and developmental-progression terminology where applicable. Better Parenting independently organizes the parent-facing What to notice and How to support it explanations and connects them with its own activity library.

The ELOF itself is not a curriculum, assessment, or checklist. Better Parenting’s Skill Assessment and Growth Path are Better Parenting product features, not Head Start assessment tools.

Skill wording and age references on this page come from the Better Parenting child-development framework. A child may show different behaviors in different situations, so understand these examples alongside everyday experience rather than treating one activity as a judgment of an entire sub-domain.

This page helps you understand what you can observe and how you can offer support. To explore your child's current position in this sub-domain, open the corresponding Growth Path in the Better Parenting app and use the Skill Assessment.

Better Parenting Content Team | Updated September 2, 2026