Abstract
The Social Referencing Observational Scale (SoROS) is being developed to measure and detect deficits in social referencing skills in children between 2.6 and 5.0 years of age. This study is the first in the sequence, describing the first phases of development. First, three different scenarios designed to evoke social referencing behaviors were selected. We called the scenarios Fear, Pain, and Joy. In the pilot study, social referencing in 60 typical children was scored. Based on the data from the pilot study, the scoring system was refined and another 204 children were tested. We report descriptive data on social referencing in typical children across age and gender. Our main finding was that all children showed social referencing in that they first looked for cues in another person as for how to behave, and second behaved accordingly. This was the case across all three tested scenarios. Inter‐rater reliability for individual scoring behaviors in all three scenarios was good to high. The descriptive data for how typical children behave in these scenarios can provide the basis for detecting deficits in social referencing and for planning interventions.