Magazine Articles On Preschool Education
The key to helping children foster friendships in the preschool environments involves teaching them to cooperate with peers, role playing and modeling by adults, and cultivating environments that foster the development of friendship skills.
Teaching Children to Cooperate with Peers
In order to help preschoolers learn to get along with each other, child care providers should first take into consideration childrens' interactions when grouping children together. Sue Adair, Director of Education at Goddard Systems, Inc, recommends that child care leaders encourage small group interaction, and pair socially competent children with shy or less socially skilled children.
Susan Cooper, educator, author, and member of Applied Scholastic International, suggests that several times each day educators stage activities in which children need to communicate with other children. Instead of the educator asking questions, he or she should have a child ask a question and then relay the answer. The more often children can interact with children and learn communication skills, the better chances of other social skills building on this basic foundation.
Dr. Susan Bartell, child psychologist and author of The Top 50 Questions Kids Ask [Sourcebook, 2010], offers the following quick tips for teaching children to get along with peers:
- Role model empathy and cooperation in adult friendships and relationships (kids learn from watching).
- When playing with children, don’t always let them win. This teaches frustration tolerance and the ability to play with others in all circumstances.
- Be prepared to intervene and help kids negotiate difficult situations, they aren’t old enough yet to work it out themselves. Young children need guidance. They need an adult to give them the words and to teach them how to see the other person’s point of view.
Childcare Providers can Nurture Friendship Skills
Child care providers can implement activities and prepare environments in order to enhance childrens’ learning of friendship skills. Begin with scheduling time each day for free play. “This is not free for all play but an organized time each day for children to play with children. This gives them a chance to interact and practice [friendship] skills,” says Cooper. However, there must be close supervision. The child care provider should always emphasize cooperation and facilitate it. Children can misinterpret the skill set, so an adult needs to be there to get it back on track quickly.
Put on a Family Puppet Show
Bring out some lunch bags and crayons or makers. Help the children make family member puppets out of the lunch bags. Let them put on a Family Puppet Show.
Top Image by rolands.lakis
Similar Posts:
- “All About Me” Preschool Activities – Part I
- Save Money while Traveling with the Family
- Hanukkah Puzzles
- Happy Father’s Day : Observations on Fatherhood
- Leaf Crafts for Kids
Did you enjoy this article? Please subscribe via RSS Feed or via email to receive all the FREE updates!
Spread the word
If you find my content worthy of greater attention, please blog about this post, Tweet This and/or Stumble This
