Promoting Positive Peer Interactions in the Preschool Classroom: The Role and the Responsibility of the Teacher in Supporting Children’s Sociodramatic Play

Abstract

Teachers play an important role in expanding and supporting children’s play and interactions with peers. This manuscript provides specific guidelines for interventions teachers can use to promote successful peer interactions in preschool settings. The strategies discussed include: (a) preparing the physical environment for play (e.g., toy selection, themes); (b) entering and exiting children’s play gracefully, (c) using talk to promote play episodes and social interactions, and (d) selecting the most appropriate intervention strategies based on direct obeservation.

Appendix

As previously mentioned, teachers must thoughtfully plan when and how to scaffold target children during peer interactions for maintenance purposes. The goal of this Appendix is to demonstrate how a teacher can provide support to preschoolers during center time using the model outlined in Fig. 1. The model itself is embedded in the Social-Emotional Cultural Context. In this example, the assumption is that the teacher is aware of his or her possible biases regarding cultural expectations for interacting with others, home language to use when interacting with others, and appropriate ways children can play. The children also bring prior positive and negative social encounters to this play episode, a preferred pattern for interactions, and temperament characteristics that may or may not influence the current social interaction.

Luke and Brea are playing at the Lego table. Both are actively engaged with the Legos. Luke built a small plane-like structure and initiates a social interaction with Brea to show her what he made. To begin the social interaction (refer to Letter A in the model), Luke says, “Brea, I made a spaceship.” Since Luke initiated the social interaction, a teacher prompt is not needed.

Brea is busy building her own Lego structure, and consequently, ignores Luke (refer to Letter B in the model). Luke repeats his statement and is again ignored by Brea. The teacher witnesses this failed interaction and uses a repeat teacher talk strategy to Brea in an attempt to salvage the social communication breakdown. The teacher says to Brea, “Brea, Luke said he built a spaceship.” Brea then looks at Luke’s spaceship and says, “I want to make one too.” In this example, if the teacher did not provide support, Luke would have experienced a social communication breakdown (refer to Letter E in the model) as no interaction with Brea would have taken place. The teacher’s support helped Luke receive a response to his initiation.

However, Luke does not respond to Brea’s statement (refer to Letter C in the model). When Luke does not respond to Brea, the teacher uses a repeat teacher talk strategy to Luke to again salvage the social communication breakdown. The teacher says to Luke, “Brea would like to make one too.” Luke then answers, “You need to do this.” He then shows Brea how to make a spaceship that is similar to his plane-like structure. The children then work together to build a spaceship for Brea (refer to Letter D in the model). At this point, the social interaction is maintained and the children do not need teacher support in order to play together.

This example illustrates how teachers can support children’s play in a manner that does not stifle their play. In all instances of support, the teacher was able to enter and exit the children’s play rather quickly while ensuring that the social interaction between the children was maintained. Without teacher support, the likelihood of Luke and Brea playing together was relatively small since Luke already experienced a social communication breakdown when Brea ignored his initiation to interact.