ABSTRACT
This chapter explores by posing a series of questions and then using relevant research in the area of children's social understanding in order to provide a critical review of people current understanding of these questions. These questions include: How do children make sense of the behaviour of others in such situations? And do social experiences with peers and friends during time spent at school have an important role to play here? It focuses that social understanding can be both influenced by, and in turn influence, the quality of a child's social relationships with adults and other children. The chapter considers a number of methods for promoting social understanding within school settings. It demonstrates that there are children with a variety of life circumstances which appear to influence their levels of social understanding and their ability to adjust to and engage with others in educational settings.
