7.5: Social Interaction
1.0 Interactions with Familiar Adults
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 1.1 Interact with familiar adults comfortably and competently, especially in familiar settings. | 1.1 Participate in longer and more reciprocal interactions with familiar adults and take greater initiative in social interaction. |
2.0 Interactions with Peers
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 2.1 Interact easily with peers in shared activities that occasionally become cooperative efforts. | 2.1 More actively and intentionally cooperate with each other. |
| 2.2 Participate in simple sequences of pretend play. | 2.2 Create more complex sequences of pretend play that involve planning, coordination of roles, and cooperation. |
| 2.3 Seek assistance in resolving peer conflict, especially when disagreements have escalated into physical aggression. | 2.3 Negotiate with each other, seeking adult assistance when needed, and increasingly use words to respond to conflict. Disagreements may be expressed with verbal taunting in addition to physical aggression. |
3.0 Group Participation
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 3.1 Participate in group activities and are beginning to understand and cooperate with social expectations, group rules, and roles. | 3.1 Participate positively and cooperatively as group members. |
4.0 Cooperation and Responsibility
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 4.1 Seek to cooperate with adult instructions but their capacities for self-control are limited, especially when they are frustrated or upset. | 4.1 Have growing capacities for self-control and are motivated to cooperate in order to receive adult approval and think approvingly of themselves. |
Teachers can support children’s development of the social interaction foundations with the following:
- Get to know and create a warm and secure relationship with each child
- Be at the child’s level as much as possible
- Initiate conversations with children about their activities and experiences
- Describe what you see children doing with comments or questions that they can respond to
- Provide specific feedback to children about their efforts instead of general words of praise
- Show respect for cultural differences in your expectations of adult–child communication
- Encourage children to see familiar adults as resources and become comfortable in asking for help and support
- Model effective and respectful interaction by joining pairs or groups of children as they play and work together
- Incorporate play materials that promote and encourage peer play
- Suggest extensions for children’s cooperative play
- Coach young children, step by step, as they learn conflict resolution skills
- Use books, puppet stories, and group discussions to reinforce children’s social interaction skills
- Plan for project work, based on children’s emerging interests, in pairs and small groups
- Plan large-group gatherings with flexibility
- Rehearse and prompt desired responses
- Acknowledge positive choices
- Build a sense of community through planned group experiences
- Arrange spaces for focused small-group work and effective large-group meetings
- Be thoughtful about group sizes
- Prepare materials ahead of time
- Incorporate nonverbal prompts to remind children of routines and expectations
- Ensure that adult expectations for children’s behavior are developmentally appropriate
- Move beyond rules to expectations to emphasize guiding principles or values
- Enlist children’s participation in creating examples of school or classroom expectations
- Focus on building a sense of classroom community
- Refer children to each other, instead of to an adult, for assistance to facilitate connections [1]
As children mature, they are able to better understand the perspectives of other people and can negotiate more constructively with peers to resolve conflicts.
Table 7.1: Developmental Sequence of Conflict Negotiation [3]
| Level | Description of Level |
|---|---|
| Beginning level | Children can express to each other (using words, actions, or facial expressions) their own desires, but adults need to provide ideas for resolving disputes. |
| Next level | Children begin to use appropriate words and actions to express their perspectives and desires to each other and seek adults for help during disputes. |
| Next level | Children not only express their own needs and desires to each other during a conflict, but can suggest simple solutions based on their own perspectives. |
| Mature or proficient level | Children can consider each other’s perspectives when there is a disagreement and can suggest and agree on some mutually acceptable solutions. |
Vignettes
Ju-Hye paints her palms and fingers with a rainbow of colors. With focused concentration, she slowly pushes her palm onto a piece of paper where she has already painted a “stem.” She lifts up her hand quickly. Ju-Hye smiles widely and then picks up her paper to show Ms. Betty, who is playing on the floor with two babies. Ms. Betty looks up and responds with a grin: “You finished your flower. You worked hard at mixing colors to make the color of green you wanted for your stem.”
Lucas stands close to his caregiver, Ms. Mai, who is sitting in the block area. Ms. Mai observes Lucas watching his peers at play as they build a large train. “This train is getting really big,” she comments to Lucas with a soft smile and a gentle hand on his back. Lucas nods his head slowly. “I wonder if Martin needs a helper. He said he is the engineer, but an engineer needs a conductor. Would you like to hand out and collect tickets?”
Lucas nods his head again and reaches for Ms. Mai’s hand as she gets up to move closer to the train. Ms. Mai provides Lucas her hand and another reassuring smile. “You could let Martin know you want to help. Tell Martin ‘I can collect the tickets.’”
Lucas pauses and then mumbles (or signs), “Martin, I can collect tickets.”
“You all look like you are having fun over here. Lucas wants to help too. Where are the tickets for Lucas to pass out to your riders?” restates Ms. Mai.
“Oh! Over there,” responds Martin, pointing over to the basket of torn pieces of paper.
“Thanks, Martin, for your help. Lucas, let’s go get the tickets and hand them to our friends. I think these builders will want to fill the train with passengers,” observes Ms. Mai excitedly. [3]
Pause to Reflect
One of the most challenging aspects about caring for and educating groups of young children can be helping them develop socially appropriate ways to express themselves and get their needs met? How skilled do you feel you would in helping children to develop conflict resolution skills? Why?
Supporting Children’s Relationships
Relationships shape young children’s learning. From infancy, parent–child and family relationships guide and motivate children’s love for discovery and learning and provide a secure foundation for the growth of exploration and self-confidence. In the classroom, special adults and friends make preschool an inviting place for children. The teacher is a bridge for the child, connecting her to relationships at home and in the classroom. Young children’s close relationships contribute in concert to the growth of early learning.
Relationships
1.0 Attachment to Parents
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 1.1 Seek security and support from their primary family attachment figures. | 1.1 Take greater initiative in seeking support from their primary family attachment figures. |
| 1.2 Contribute to maintaining positive relationships with their primary family attachment figures. | 1.2 Contribute to positive mutual cooperation with their primary family attachment figures. |
| 1.3 After experience with out-of-home care, manage departures and separations from primary family attachment figures with the teacher’s assistance. | 1.3 After experience with out-of-home care, comfortably depart from their primary family attachment figures. Also maintain well-being while apart from primary family attachment figures during the day. |
2.0 Close Relationships with Teachers and Caregivers
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 2.1 Seek security and support from their primary teachers and caregivers. | 2.1 Take greater initiative in seeking the support of their primary teachers and caregivers. |
| 2.2 Contribute to maintaining positive relationships with their primary teachers and caregivers. | 2.2 Contribute to positive mutual cooperation with their primary teachers and caregivers. |
3.0 Friendships
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 3.1 Choose to play with one or two special peers whom they identify as friends. | 3.1 Friendships are more reciprocal, exclusive, and enduring. |
Teachers can support children’s development of the relationships with the following:
- Establish a warm and collaborative relationship with each child’s family
- Talk with children regularly about their families
- Create predictable arrival and departure routines
- Communicate frequently with family members about children’s preschool activities, progress, and any concerns you have
- Build and maintain a pattern of warm, nurturing interactions with each child
- Encourage child–adult collaboration in learning
- Plan a program that offers choices of activities and associations with peers
- Provide spaces in the classroom that only accommodate two or three children
- Use ongoing observations to inform your social structuring of experiences
- Use books, puppet plays, and group discussions to identify and reinforce friendship skills
- Communicate with children’s families about their preschool friendships and encourage out-of-school contact with school friends, if possible [4]
Vignettes
Tanya eagerly comes through the front door and greets caregiver Natalya with her news: “Ms. Natalya, we went to the fair last night, and I got to pet goats and sheeps and chickens, except Papa said to stay back from the ducks, because they have bills that can bite you fast!”
Ms. Natalya knelt down, and Tanya reached out to her. “Wow, Tanya! You sound really excited about your night at the fair. Did your whole family go, Grandpa too?” she asked, looking at Tanya’s papa, who had accompanied her to the family child care home. Mr. Terebkov smiled and nodded, responding that it had been an enjoyable but late night for all of them. Ms. Natalya prompted Tanya to hug Papa goodbye, and then Tanya reached for Ms. Natalya’s hand as they moved together into the play area. Ms. Natalya asked Tanya more about her favorite part of the county fair.
“No, you’re not!” shouts Michelle. “Yes, I am! I’m the Mommy!” screams Lily.
“Well, you are a Silly Pilly. You’re not my friend anymore” counters Michelle, standing with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.
At Michelle’s words, Lily’s lip begins to quiver. Tears form in her eyes as she yells, “I am your friend! I am!”
Miss Sandra moves over to the confrontation, kneels between the girls, and says with concern, “You both look really upset. Something is wrong. Can you tell me what is happening?”
“She said I am not her friend!” exclaims Lily, trying to overcome her tears.
“She is being a mean-y pants. I don’t like her,” says Michelle.
“It sounds like both of you have hurt feelings. Being friends with someone means that sometimes we disagree and we get mad or sad. It sounds like that is happening right now. What can we do?”
“I am going to play with David,” huffs Michelle as she marches off.
Lily leans into Miss Sandra. Miss Sandra considers what she knows about each child’s individual temperament before responding: “It’s tricky sometimes with friends. Why don’t we take a little break from playing with Michelle? I’ll bet she will be ready to play later when you are both feeling better.” Miss Sandra helps Lily get involved in a new activity and then makes a mental note to check with each child’s parent at departure time. [5]
Pause to Reflect
Separating from parents is challenging for both children and families. How can you support children and the adults that they are attached to through this transition? Some of the strategies above are a great starting place.
Engaging Families
Teachers can make the following suggestions to families to facilitate their support of the visual and performing arts for their children:
- Share stories about when they were babies and the ways they have grown and changed.
- Share ideas about the many ways people can be the same and different.
- Model constructive coping strategies when frustrated.
- Wonder aloud about how characters is a book might be feeling and why.
- Help children find a balance between vigorous activity and calm and focused times.
- Have conversations with children about things they are thinking, planning, and doing.
- Encourage children to work out a disagreement with a sibling or friend by suggesting to each other ideas for solving the problem. Remind children to consider each other’s needs and feelings as they choose a solution to try. Stay close by to help children as they practice using words to resolve a conflict.
- Ask children for help with household chores or projects. Discuss, while working together, some things each person can do to help the family.
- Emphasize to children the family’s values about such things as cooperation, teamwork, good manners, and kindness toward other people.
- Start a special good-bye ritual to use with a preschool child every day. A predictable routine is reassuring and makes the transition easier.
- Find at least a few minutes every day to spend as special time with each child (read a book, run an errand, complete a chore together, etc.
- Recognize that opportunities out of school to play with other children build positive social skills. [6]
Conclusion
The heart of a curriculum that nurtures children’s social-emotional development is play. A play-based, active learning approach allows many opportunities for practicing social interaction and relationship skills. It provides support for the growth of age- and developmentally appropriate self-regulation abilities. It encourages children’s own curiosity and initiative. Finally, play in a well-planned early learning program provides each child with a network of nurturing, dependable adults who will actively support and scaffold their learning in a group setting.
To be effective in accomplishing early learning goals, an active, play-based program must allow children to freely choose and pursue interests and activities, both alone and with others. It must encourage them to translate their own thoughts, ideas, and preferences into new activities and experiments. It must give them access to these opportunities for activity and exploration in a thoughtfully planned environment for a substantial portion of each preschool day. And most importantly, it must be planned and led by teachers who actively participate as co-explorers in children’s chosen activities. In this context, play is essential and is enhanced if materials are available to encourage creativity and problem solving, and if teachers are attentive to the social interactions that surround children’s play. This active, enthusiastic engagement of children and adults together in a learning community can lead to dramatic growth in children’s social-emotional understandings and competencies and their readiness for the challenges of school.
- The California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 1 by the California Department of Education is used with permission ↵
- The California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 1 by the California Department of Education is used with permission ↵
- Ibid. ↵
- The California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 1 by the California Department of Education is used with permission ↵
- Ibid. ↵
- Ibid. ↵
