Playtime: Teaching Parents and Professionals How To Promote Peer Interactions

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Playtime Teaching Parents and Professionals How
To Promote Peer Interactions

• Corey L. Clemente, Ph.D. CCC-SLP
• Radford University
• 6th Annual Infant Toddler Connection of
  Virginia EI Conference
• April 30, 2008

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Why Peer Interactions?

• Playing with peers is important!
• Through peer interactions, children learn to
• See things from another persons perspective
• Make compromises
• Resolve conflicts
• Share, collaborate, and cooperate
• Negotiate and assert themselves

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What We Should Expect

• Many children naturally develop the ability to
  interact well with peers
• By the age of 3 years, children in a group
  setting should interact more with their peers
  than with their teachers
• Between 3 and 5 years of age, children who
  interact most often with their peers are also the
  ones with the best-developed language skills

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Pre-Requisite Communication Skills for Peer
Interactions

• In order to interact with peers, children should
  be able to
• Initiate interactions
• Respond when others initiate
• Send clear messages
• Continue the conversation (take turns)
• Clear up misunderstandings
• Stick to a subject
• Children have difficulty interacting with peers
  if they
• Seldom initiate or respond during peer
  interactions
• Initiate or respond inappropriately
• Dont persist if their first attempt to
  communicate with a peer fails

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By the age of 3 yearschildren should demonstrate
the following behaviors with peers

• Getting a peers attention
• Being a leader in an activity
• Imitating a peer
• Expressing affection toward a peer
• Expressing hostility toward a peer
• Following or refusing to follow a peers request
• Negotiating an acceptable solution
• Playing in a group for a relatively long time
• Our job, then, is to PREPARE our infants/toddlers
  to engage in these interactions with one another

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The Role of the Parent/Caregiver in Facilitating
Peer Interactions

• For children with special needs, there are
  several barriers that keep us from emphasizing
  peer interaction skills
• The training of parents
• Once provided with minimal instruction, parents
  are capable of learning and implementing
  interaction-promoting strategies between children
  and their peers (Girolametto Weitzman, 2006)
• The training of professionals
• So focused on individual needs and goals of
  childrentend to neglect peer interactions
• With specific training that targets group skills,
  EI professionals become confident/competent in
  targeting peer/pragmatic skills among children
  (Craig-Unkefer, 2002 Guralnick Neville, 1997)
• Once we get past these barriers
• HOW do we target these skills?!

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Questions that we need to Ask and Answer

• How many children should be included in a group?
• Who should be grouped together?
• How do I set up an appropriate activity?
• How do I monitor the childs level of involvement
  in the activity?
• Levels of Involvement
• Types of Play
• How do I adapt my responses to each childs needs?

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The Answers

• Limit the groups to 3-4 children
• Group children who will be a good mix based on
  levels of involvement and types of play
• Choose activities that
• Are interesting to all of the children
• Match each childs abilities
• Do not involve too many materials
• Allow you and the children to be on the same
  physical level

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Types of Play

• Functional Play
• Begins in the 1st year and peaks between 2 and 3
  years of age
• Constructive Play
• Begins in the 2nd year and peaks between 3-4
  years of age
• Dramatic Play
• Begins in the 2nd year and peaks between 6-7
  years of age
• Games with Rules
• Begins at about 6 years of age and continues
  throughout adulthood

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Conversational Styles

• By looking at how frequently children typically
  initiate and respond during adult and peer-based
  interactions, we can identify different
  conversational styles
• The Sociable Child
• The Reluctant Child
• The Child with His Own Agenda
• The Passive Child

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How Much Does Your Child Interact During Play?

• No social interaction
• Non-play behavior
• Unoccupied
• Onlookers
• Solitary Play
• Minimal Social Interaction
• Parallel Play
• Lots of Social Interaction
• Associative Group Play
• Cooperative Group Play

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Levels of Involvement

• Attention
• Are the children showing interest in the
  activity?
• Are the children attending to and reacting to
  what you and the other children are doing?
• Participation
• Are the children actively participating in the
  activity and handling the materials?
• Interaction
• Are the children interacting with you and with
  the other members of the group?
• Levels of Involvement may vary depending on the
  childrens different conversational styles

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If your child is Your goal is to

• Not attending
• Not participating
• Not interacting
• Attending but not participating or interacting
• Attending and participating but not interacting
• Attending, participating, AND interacting

• Help your child attend and become aware of what
  the activity has to offer
• Encourage your child to use the materials and get
  involved in the activity
• Encourage your child to initiate to you or their
  peers
• Engage your child in extended interactions,
  ensuring that no single child controls your
  attention in the group

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If your goal is to You can adapt your
response by

• Help your child attend and become aware of what
  the activity has to offer
• Encourage your child to use the materials and get
  involved in the activity
• Encourage your child to initiate to you or their
  peers
• Engage your child in extended interactions,
  ensuring that no single child controls your
  attention in the group

• Change or adapt the activity
• Make your language easier to understand
• Change position so that you are face-to-face
• Invite your child to join in
• Wait expectantly for him/her to join in
• Wait! Follow your childs lead
• Respond promptly to any initiation
• Use sincere ?s and comments to keep your child in
  the conversation/interaction

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Activities and Scenarios to Consider

• Set up an environment to bring children together
• Provide large pieces of equipment that encourage
  interaction
• Adapt play activities
• Provide toys for all development levels
• Provide duplicate toys
• Provide an appropriate number of toys
• Set up the environment so that you and the
  children are face to face!

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BrainstormingBooks, Music, Snacks, and Art

• Books
• Dialogic Reading (Whitehurst et al., 1994)
• Music
• Snacks
• Arts and Crafts

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ReferencesResearch and Resources

• Craig-Unkefer, L.A. (2002). Improving the social
  communication skills of at-risk preschool
  children in a play context. Topics in Early
  Childhood Special Education, 22(2), 3-13.
• Girolametto, L. Weitzman, E. (2006). It Takes
  Two to Talk Th e Hanen Program for parents
  Early language intervention through caregiver
  training. In R. McCauley M. Fey (Eds.),
  Treatment of language disorders in children (pp.
  77-103). Baltimore Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
• Guralnick, M., Neville, B. (1997). Designing
  early intervention programs to promote childrens
  social competence. In M. Guralnick (Ed.), The
  effectiveness of early intervention (p. 579-610).
  Baltimore Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
• Manolson, A. (1992). It Takes Two to Talk.
  Ontario, Canada Hanen Early Language Program.
• Weitzman, E., Greenberg, J. (2002). Learning
  Language and Loving It 2nd Edition. Ontario,
  Canada Hanen Early Language Program.