ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the stage of socio-emotional and regulation development: attachment, attunement, empathy, interpersonal regulation to intrapersonal regulation, self-regulation, and inhibition and relate these developmental areas to social communication development and disorders. Most cultural factors affecting socio-emotional development can be organized into three categories: the mind-set of the caregivers, the physical and social environment, and cultural habits in caring for and rearing children. Physical and social environments include the settings where children and their families live and interact, such as neighborhoods, schools, parks, and the community. The social environment involves the people responsible for the care of children and people with whom children interact on a regular basis. Poverty or low socioeconomic status (SES) has a detrimental influence on social and emotional development in the domain of physical and social environments. The cultural variations on how parents socialize and discipline their children in exploration, separation, obedience, and behavior, children may demonstrate differences in social and emotional behaviors such as attachment.
