Components of Social Competence and Strategies of Support: Considering What to Teach and How

Abstract

Decisions about how to support the development of young children’s social competence must be made on the basis of knowledge of important competencies to be developed, as well as effective strategies to support those competencies. This paper combines a broad-definition model of components of social competence (Kostelnik, Stein, Whiren, Soderman, & Gregory, 2002) with a continuum model of support strategies ranging from most to least naturalistic (Kemple, 2004). Illustrations of specific strategies to support particular competencies are provided.