Children flexibly choose when to imitate and when to innovate the behavior of others, which demonstrates that children are precocious social learners.
“There’s nothing children are more interested in than other people,” says psychologist Cristine Legare of the University of Texas at Austin. “Acquiring the skills and practices of their social groups is the fundamental task of childhood.”
In order to function within their social groups, children have to learn both technical skills with instrumental goals, such as using a fork and knife to cut food, and social conventions with goals based on social conformity, such as forms of greeting (for example: handshakes, kissing, and bowing).
