Principle 8: Skills are built through social interaction.
We don’t acquire skills and knowledge entirely on our own. Support from others is critical to skill building.
Note: Unconstrained Kids unpacks, translates, and integrates academic research and data about constrained and unconstrained skills for people that run, fund, and assist organizations that teach and serve kids. This post is part of a series that describes 14 key principles of skill building I identified from the Science of Learning and Development. (Especially Dynamic Skill Theory.) Like everything on this Substack, this post is a work-in-progress. I will make updates as needed. Citations are included at the end. Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.
Last updated: June 4, 2025
Key Takeaway
Skill is the ability to think and act in an organized way in a specific context (Immordino-Yang and Fischer, 2010). Children’s interaction with others–family, friends, teachers, mentors–play an important role in skill building. Good design of experiences and opportunities for skill building intentionally takes into account the social dimension of learning.
“Individuals learn what they do, and particularly what they do with others. Social interaction—especially exchanges that are scaffolded by more accomplished others—has the effect of raising an individual’s performance to levels beyond that which can be sustained while working alone.” (Mascolo, 2020)
We don’t acquire skills and knowledge entirely on our own. Skills are learned partly from other people–whether directly or vicariously by watching them (Immordino-Yang, 2008). We imitate other people’s actions–including their thoughts and beliefs. In this way, social learning is a major driver of skill building.
Children rely upon trusted adults–parents, caregivers, teachers, mentors–and peers for emotional clues about how they should behave. “They imagine how other people feel and think, and those thoughts in turn influence how they feel and think” (Immordino‐Yang, 2011).
Social support is an important part of the context in which skills are built. (See Principle 3.) Interaction with others is critical to social emotions. (See Principle 4.). “We are influenced by not only our own emotions, but also by others’ emotions, behaviors, and mental states” (Immordino-Yang, 2007).
Social interaction is important for both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. (See Principle 5.) Skills are developed and practiced with others. In situations of high support, a mentor, coach, or teacher can help a child achieve levels of competence they couldn’t reach on their own.
This type of support “awakens and directs the process of development” (Mascolo & Fisher, 2010). The presence or absence of social support can have dramatic effects on the skill level a child is able to produce (Fischer et al., 1993). (See Principles 9, 10, and 11.)
Social interaction is an important part of the relational dimension of “conditions for learning,” such as trust, attachment, and attunement (Cantor et al., 2019). The desire to overcome obstacles and undertake goal-oriented behaviors is often aroused by social emotions triggered by others (e.g. admiration, compassion, etc.) (Hardway, 2020).
But wait, there’s more
Works Cited
Cantor, P., Osher, D., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T. (2019). Malleability, plasticity, and individuality: How children learn and develop in context. Applied Developmental Science, 23(4), 307–337.
Fischer, K. W., Bullock, D. H., Rotenberg, E. J., & Raya, P. (1993). The dynamics of competence: How context contributes directly to skill. In R. Wozniak & K. Fischer (Eds.), Development in context: Acting and thinking in specific environments. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hardway, C. (2020). Of interest and engagement: The emotional force of learning and development. In M. F. Mascolo & T. R. Bidell (Eds.), Handbook of integrative developmental science: Essays in honor of Kurt W. Fischer (pp. 232–261). Routledge.
Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2007). A tale of two cases: Lessons for education from the study of two boys living with half their brains. Mind, Brain, and Education, 1(2), 66–83.
Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2008). The smoke around mirror neurons: Goals as sociocultural and emotional organizers of perception and action in learning. Mind, Brain, and Education, 2(2), 67–73.
Immordino‐Yang, M. H. (2011). Implications of affective and social neuroscience for educational theory. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 43(1), 98–103.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Fischer, K. W. (2010). Neuroscience bases of learning. In V. G. Aukrust (Ed.), International encyclopedia of education (3rd Edition, pp. 310–316). Elsevier.
Mascolo, M. F. (2020). Dynamic skill theory: An integrative model of psychological development. In M. F. Mascolo & T. R. Bidell (Eds.), Handbook of integrative developmental science: Essays in honor of Kurt W. Fischer (pp. 91–135). Routledge.
Mascolo, M. F., & Fischer, K. W. (2010). The dynamic development of thinking, feeling, and acting over the lifespan. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of life-span development (Vol. 1, pp. 149–194). Wiley.