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Morgan Thomalla
When children reach the age that they can enter preschool, they are undergoing many
physical, cognitive, social, and emotional developments. This is the time when children are
becoming more advanced in their motor skills, learning potty-training, and developing more
advanced brain functioning. Some of these children may not have had many social interactions
before entering preschool besides the contact they have had with their relatives, while other
children may have been a part of different daycare or play programs where they interacted with
other children on a regular basis (Feldman, 2012). Preschool childrens social interactions play a
large role in the development of their shyness. This shyness can affect them cognitively,
emotionally, and socially.
All of the people that children develop relationships with can affect the likelihood of
them becoming shy. This ranges from the interactions children have with their parents, with
their teachers, and with other children their age. In a study by Hane et al. (2008), the researchers
focused on the relationship between preschool aged children and their mothers. Specifically,
they looked at how the behavior of the mothers affected their childrens social interactions. In
this study, the researchers found that children whose mothers had a more positive outlook on life
tended to be more successful in interacting with other children and displayed a lower number of
unsociable behaviors. They also found that children who had shy mothers were more likely to be
shy themselves. Interestingly though, mothers who were negative and shy seemed to have a
greater influence on their children becoming shy than mothers who were shy and positive, as
fewer of them had shy children compared to the negative, shy mothers (Hane et al., 2008).
Similarly, in a study by Edwards et al. (2010), researchers focused on how the anxiety of parents
affects a childs shyness and anxiety levels. Here, they found that anxious parents had a tendency
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to be more controlling of their children, and that this lead to a higher rate of shyness and anxiety
in their children (Edwards et al., 2010).
Not only do parents have an impact on the shyness of children, but the other significant
adult figures can greatly influence the shyness of children. Another adult figure that will
influence the shyness of a child is his or her teacher. Once children are old enough to go to
preschool, they may be spending more time with their teachers than their parents or other
primary caregivers, which is why the relationship between children and their teachers is so
important. Justice et al. (2008) conducted a study looking for a correlation between a positive
student-teacher relationship and decreased shyness. In this experiment, teachers were involved in
a number of different activities with their preschool students throughout an entire school year.
At the end of the year, the teachers assessed their relationship with each child in their class as
well as that childs social interactions with their peers. The results of this study supported the
idea that a positive relationship between teachers and students would result in more positive
social interactions and less social withdrawal in children (Justice et al., 2008).
The social interactions preschool children have with their peers also affects the amount of
unsociability and shyness they display. The amount of time children have spent around other
children before going to preschool can influence how well they interact with other children once
they begin school. Their shyness can also be affected by their interactions with siblings and
other neighbor children around their age. Because of all the different factors that can affect the
shyness of children, some children can already be shy once they get to preschool, and social
interactions in a school setting can be used to help increase sociability. Some children, however,
are considered extremely shy by this point to the level that it many inhibit their development.
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Many children who are extremely shy are placed in programs to try to decrease their unsociable
behaviors (Coplan et al., 2010).
In 2010, Coplan et al. conducted a study on preschool-aged children who were
considered to be extremely shy and were a part of one of these intervention programs. This
study looked at a wait-list group, which served as the control group, and the experimental group,
or those children who participated in the program. A program was developed specifically for this
study that made use of five different steps throughout the daily program. The program began
with a warm up exercise where the children were allowed to play freely for about five minutes.
Next, the children had a teacher-directed exercise that lasted about ten minutes where the
children were taught skills that would aid them in their social interactions with other children.
These skills included maintaining eye-contact and a breathing technique to use when they were
feeling anxious. This was followed by a forty minute segment where the children were allowed
to play freely with whomever they wished, while the teachers observed and aided their social
interactions. Every day the program ended with a five minute period where the children played a
game that would leave them with a positive experience at the conclusion of the program. In
comparing the control and experimental groups of this study, they found that the children who
participated in the intervention program showed less unsociable behaviors and more positive
social interactions than the children who were a part of the wait-list group (Coplan et al., 2010).
This is just one example of a program used to increase sociability in extremely shy children,
although there are many different types of programs that can be used. It is not always necessary
for children to take part in these types of programs as shyness can decrease with more social
interactions and exposure to other children.
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Shyness can be caused by a variety of factors, and sometimes this shyness can lead to
some cognitive delays. One way shy children can be delayed cognitively is in their language
development. In a study by Spere et al. (2004), a word game was used to assess the language
skills of shy and outgoing preschool students. The researchers found that the outgoing
preschoolers had significantly higher language skills than the shy preschoolers. However, the
average score for shy preschoolers was still within the suitable range for language development
for children at that age level (Spere et al., 2004). Shy children could show a decrease in their
language skills because shy children usually do not communicate with people as much as
outgoing children, so they probably are not exposed to or applying as many words as outgoing
children are early on. However, in a study by Coplan et al. (2005), they found that shy
preschoolers who were in a comfortable setting displayed language skills equal to those of
preschoolers who were not shy. Even though these children showed a lower level of language
skills when interacting with unfamiliar children or adults, after working on their language skills
with a researcher in an environment that was familiar to them, their language skills were no
different than other preschoolers who were not shy (Coplan et al., 2005). It seems that shyness
does have a negative effect on language, but it is something that can be corrected with time.
Another area of cognitive development that can be affected by shyness is emotional
processing. When children are shy, they may have a lower self-esteem which can cause them to
be more sensitive to neutral situations. This can lead to them interpreting a neutral stimulus as a
negative one (Coplan et al., 2010). In 2008, Strand et al. looked at how shyness affects
emotional processing in preschool children. The children were given certain scenarios in which
the characters displayed particular emotions and the children were asked to interpret these
emotions. This was done to ensure that the children understood the emotions that were going to
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be evaluated in the study. Next the children were shown a series of pictures and asked to
describe what emotion was being displayed. Here, they found that shy children had no problem
interpreting positive emotions, but many times they mistook neutral facial expressions as
showing a negative emotion, such as scared or angry. Overall, they found that shy children had
trouble processing negative emotions compared to the children who were not shy (Strand et al.,
2008).
On top of the cognitive drawbacks of shyness on preschool children, shyness can also
cause negative emotional issues. Shyness can lead to children developing negative coping
mechanisms, such as withdrawing from situations as a way of dealing with things that are
uncomfortable or stressful to them. It can also lead to children having lowered self-esteem,
which greatly affects their interactions with other children. For example, shy children may be
very sensitive to what other people think of them, which can cause them to have a lower level of
confidence, which will in turn result in them being less social. Shyness can also affect children
later on in life, and it has been found that children who are extremely shy display higher rates of
depression and loneliness (Coplan et al., 2010).
Not only can cognitive and emotional development be affected by shyness, but social
development is another area that is largely affected by shyness. Shy children are less likely to try
initiate interactions with others, which can cause them to develop fewer relationships. In a 2009
study, Coplan et al. found that the social interactions of shy preschoolers are not only inhibited in
the school setting, but outside of school as well. They found that shy children are less likely to
become involved in extracurricular activities such as sports or clubs, which may further inhibit
their social skills. They also found that shy preschoolers would be less inclined to have play
dates outside of school (Coplan et al., 2009). Interestingly, other studies have shown that
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shyness can lead to a decrease in creativity, which may affect social development. Because shy
children tend to have lower self-esteem, they make also be wary of the ideas they have due to
how they think others will perceive them. This can lead to them contributing fewer ideas when
interacting with other children, specifically, when it comes to imaginative play, thus further
decreasing their social development (Kemple et al., 1996).
There are many studies that support the idea that shyness is largely affected by the social
interactions preschoolers have, and that shyness can cause social, emotional, and cognitive
effects. Although some aspects of shyness may be positive, such as how shy children tend to
compliment outgoing children well, there are also some negative effects. Shy preschoolers may
have slightly lower language skills, creativity, and self-esteem. Shyness in children seems to be
strongly linked with the personality traits of the childrens parents or primary caregivers.
Teachers and parents who are optimistic and develop positive relationships with children tend to
influence children in a way which results in them displaying fewer unsociable behaviors.
Overall, it seems that shyness can be caused by a number of factors and can lead to a number of
negative outcomes for a child.








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References
Coplan, R. J., Schneider, B. H., Matheson, A., & Graham, A. (2010). 'Play skills' for shy
children: Development of a social skills facilitated play early intervention program for
extremely inhibited preschoolers. Infant And Child Development, 19(3), 223-237.
Coplan, R. J., DeBow, A., Schneider, B. H., & Graham, A. A. (2009). The social behaviours of
inhibited children in and out of preschool. British Journal Of Developmental
Psychology, 27(4), 891-905.
Coplan, R. J., & Armer, M. (2005). Talking Yourself Out of Being Shy: Shyness, Expressive
Vocabulary, and Socioemotional Adjustment in Preschool. Merrill-Palmer
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Edwards, S. L., Rapee, R. M., & Kennedy, S. (2010). Prediction of anxiety symptoms in
preschool-aged children: examination of maternal and paternal perspectives. Journal Of
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Pearson Prentice Hall.
Hane, A., Cheah, C., Rubin, K. H., & Fox, N. A. (2008). The role of maternal behavior in the
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middle childhood. Social Development, 17(4), 795-811.
Justice, L. M., Cottone, E. A., Mashburn, A., & Rimm-Kaufman, S. E. (2008). Relationships
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skills, temperamentally based attributes, and gender. Early Education And
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Kemple, K. M., David, G. M., & Yiping, W. (1996). Preschoolers' Creativity, Shyness, and Self-
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Spere, K. A., Schmidt, L. A., Theall-Honey, L. A., & Martin-Chang, S. (2004). Expressive
and receptive language skills of temperamentally shy preschoolers. Infant And Child
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Strand, P. S., Cerna, S., & Downs, A. (2008). Shyness and emotion-processing skills in
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