You might be asked to assess a young infant’s social skills during the clinical examination. Like with every other area of developmental assessment, practice will improve your confidence.

Social skills start to develop as early as a few days after birth. The child starts to make eye contact with the carer. His skills then mature to include smiling, fixing and following, cooing, mouthing and enjoying caring routines.

Place the young infant on the examination table if available or on his parents lap facing you. Is there eye contact? Show the child an interesting toy and see if they can follow it through 90-180 degrees?  Smile while looking at the child (do not touch the child or distract them) does he respond with a smile? Test for mouthing. You can also obtain this information from the child’s mother. 

The following are expected for a young infant.
Few days after birth
- Can make eye contact
5-6weeks
-Sleeps for most of the day
-Smiles
12 weeks
-Can fix gaze on parents face
-Can reacts to familiar situations by smiling, cooing
-Enjoys caring routines
6 months
-Mouthing- takes everything to the mouth
-Places hand on bottle or breast while feeding
-Shakes a rattle
-Responds to play

After examining the young infant, summarise your findings and present them to the examiner. Propose a management plan