ABSTRACT
It is impossible to describe the stages of normal social development step for step, month by month, within the pre-school ages of two to five years. Each child enters the pre-school period with a different set of social reactions, based in part upon his particular emotional and instinctive tendencies and in part upon the nature of his previous social encounters. General stages of development may therefore be traced, starting with certain common types of behaviour towards the social situation of the nursery school. Moreover, children vary in their rate of social progress, and all stages of development may be found at each age within the pre-school period in any given group of children. In brief, children between the ages of two and five years progress through three roughly defined stages of development in their social relations with adults.
