The document discusses the importance of social interaction in early childhood development, highlighting how children learn social skills through play and peer interactions. It describes various teaching strategies, such as role play and specific observational methods like event sampling, anecdotal records, and frequency counts to assess children's social behaviors. Significant milestones in behavior and social skills for preschool-aged children (4-5 years) are outlined, along with the importance of adult intervention in fostering positive peer interactions.

1. Domain of Development
Social Interaction
Social interaction involves cooperating and getting along with other children, siblings,
parents, and teachers. It also includes the development of self-esteem, the feelings children have
about themselves. Children’s interactions and relationships with others enlarge their views of the
world and of themselves (Morrison, 2007). During early childhood children learn many social
skills to help them manage social interaction in a variety of settings and with a number of people.
They also learn about adult roles through play and real-life activities and as they learn about
adult activities, they learn to understand others and themselves.
Throughout a typical preschool day, there are countless opportunities for children to
interact and play with one another. Peer interactions serve a variety of important roles for
preschoolers. Throughout the day, as they watch, imitate, model, and interact with each other,
preschoolers learn to share, solve problems, and collaborate. They also build friendships that
promote positive social and emotional development. These skills don’t all come naturally,
however, and some children have difficulty interacting with their peers and building friendships.
Some children must be taught the skills necessary to interact with their peers. At the Cocoyea
ECCE Centre, time is set aside during the daily large group or circle time to learn and practice
specific social skills that children can use to interact and build friendships with one another.
Children have many strategies that they use to interact with one another; some of these
strategies are appropriate and some are not. Most teachers or caregivers have seen children grab
toys from peers, push or hit to get what they want, or ignore a friend who is trying to talk to
them. Other children may have difficulty interacting with peers because of developmental
disabilities, language delays, or social delays. It is important to teach children positive skills that

2. they can use to successfully interact with their peers. Children can be taught to initiate positive
interactions with their peers during large group activities such as circle time or story time. Using
role play for example, children learn to get each other’s attention, to share toys and materials, to
make suggestions for play, to assist each other, and to say nice things to one another. Once a
group of children has been taught these positive social skills, teachers provide the children with
opportunities throughout the day to interact with each other using the targeted skills. During
these play periods, teachers/ caregivers mingle among the children, encourage positive peer
interactions (e.g., “Tyriek, please ask Messiah for a paintbrush.”), praise interactions that occur
(e.g., “Thank you for lending Messiah the paintbrush.”), and provide suggestions to keep
children’s play interesting (e.g., “You two can finish painting the picture of this house together
using these colours.”). Some important milestones are listed below.
Important Milestones: Four-Year- Old
(Gordon and Browne, 2008 pg.107-108)
 Mood changes rapidly
 Tries out feelings of power
 Dominates; is bossy, boastful, belligerent
 Assertive, argumentative
 Shows off; is cocky, noisy
 Can fight own battles
 Hits, grabs, insists on desires
 Explosive, destructive

3.  Easily overstimulated; excitable
 Impatient in large groups*
 Cooperates in groups of two or three*
 Develops ‘special’ friends* but shifts loyalties often
 In-group develops; excludes others*
 Resistant; tests limits
 Exaggerates, tells tall tales
 Alibis frequently
 Teases, outwits; has terrific humor
 May have scary dreams
 Tattles frequently
 Has food jags, food strikes
Important Milestones: Five-Year- Old
 Poised, self-confident, self-contained
 Sensitive to ridicule*
 Has to be right; persistent
 Has sense of self- identity*
 May get silly, high, wild
 Enjoys pointless riddles, jokes
 Enjoys group play, competitive games*
 Aware of rules, defines them for others*
 Chooses own friends; is sociable*

4.  Gets involved in group decisions*
 Insists on fair play*
 Likes adult companionship*
 Accepts, respects authority*
 Asks permission
 Remains calm in emergencies
*Key characteristics of cultural awareness or identity

5. Assessment Instruments and Justifications
Event Sampling
Event sampling is observations focused on particular events, recorded briefly while it is
taking place to build up a pattern of a child's behaviour over time. It enables the observer to
record when the ‘event’ occurs and to make a note of the actual events leading up to it. It is used
to observe and record children's social-personal interactions with the teacher and other children
as a basis to plan desirable interventions. Event sampling may need to be carried out over quite a
long period of time in order to discover what triggers the behaviour before a strategy can be
sought to change it. It focuses on behaviours during particular events such as, behaviour at
lunchtime, behaviour on the playground, and behaviour in a reading group (Morrison, 2007).
Advantages of Event Sampling:
The major advantage with event sampling is that teachers focus on something quite specific.
They tend to concentrate on only one aspect of the curriculum or development, which gives their
observation a sharper focus (e.g., fighting during transition activities or a very quiet child
contributing to a discussion).
 The teacher or observer can comment on the quality of what they see.
 It is preserved facts and details for any reader to draw conclusions.
 Event sampling gives a short, contextual account of an event.
 It is useful for tracking developmental abilities or warning of development lags.
 Can be revisited to see progress over time.

6.  It is easy and efficient to record, and allows easy analysis
 More objective as it’s defined ahead of time
 Useful in examine infrequent or rarely occur behaviours
Disadvantages of Event Sampling:
 Event sampling can include possibly unclear definitions of the particular event, which
could lead to inaccurate observations.
 It is the teacher’s or observer written view of an event and can be biased if the teacher
simply ignores data.
 Only records one kind of behaviour at a time. Take the event out of context
 Is close-ended and limited, thus lacking the richness of the narrative methods.
Why is event sampling appropriate for assessing social interaction and the selected age
group?
Event sampling is observations focused on particular events to build up a pattern of a
child's behaviour over a period of days or weeks. For example, to discover what provokes
tantrums, or how a child reacts to leaving their caregiver at the start of each day in nursery or
kindergarten. Event samples help to clarify what really happens during a tantrum. For example,
is the child provoked, does the event happen at certain times of day, how long does the tantrum
last? Event samples are a useful way to detect if a child has a behaviour problem that needs help
or referral to another professional. It also focuses on perceived problems and attempt to find
solutions to manage the child's behaviour more effectively. The observer needs to be focused
and remember to note the details as the event occurs. This method of observation is particularly

7. helpful for assessing social interaction because it involves a child’s behaviour such as attention
seeking, aggressive behaviour, quarrels, and so on. Event sampling captures events as they
natural occur and it is important as children acquire skills or control of their behaviour necessary
for the development of social interaction. The observer may wish to account for what triggers
and /or follows an event. With event sampling, the time, activities and even days of the week
that you choose to observe a particular child can vary. This is essential because the observe
needs to get a picture of the whole child- in the morning and afternoon, at break time, circle time,
and playtime, and on Mondays, as well as Tuesdays and so on.
This approach is particularly important for 3-5 year olds, who at this stage, often have
difficulty expressing themselves verbally or who may find it threatening to respond to questions
posed to them. Many preschoolers also have difficulty negotiating conflict situations, and will
often resort to aggressive behaviors. Preschoolers as old as five years of age still have a tough
time with self-control and conflict resolution. Developing these skills depends largely on
intervention by an adult who is willing and able to teach appropriate behaviours.

8. Anecdotal Records
An anecdotal record is a description of student behavior or a report of observed behavioral
incidents. They can also be described as brief accurate notes made of significant events or
critical incidents in a particular child’s day (Mindes, 2007, page 67). With an anecdotal record,
the observer writes down the child's behaviors she witnesses without making any
judgments. Anecdotal records are short, objective and as accurate as possible. They tell a story
that the reader can see, hear and feel as if he/she were there. They are used:
1) To provide insight into a particular behaviour
2) As a basis for planning a specific teaching strategy and
3) To preserve the details of a specific incident
Advantages of anecdotal records
 Needs no special training
 Needs no specials forms/templates
 Gives a short, contextual account of an incident
 Seperates judgement or inferences from details of the incident
 Open ended and can catch unexpected events
 Are useful for recording all areas of development
 Can select behaviours or events of interest and ignore others, or can sample a wide range
of behaviours (different times, environments and people)
Disadvantages of anecdotal records
 Only records events of interest to the person doing the observing

9.  Choosing which incident to record gives the writer selectivity that may influence positive
or negative collections
 Incidents can be taken out of context
 There is intense writing to capture every detail
 May miss out on recording specific types of behaviour
 Can only focus on a few minutes of action
 Can only focus on one or two children at a time
Why are anecdotal records appropriate for assessing social interaction and the
selected age group?
Written observations of children in the form of anecdotal records allows the observer to
learn more about the child as an individual. We used this form of assessment for the domain of
social interaction because anecdotes are able to tell a story as they describe a child’s behaviour,
complete with verbal responsives in a narrative style. Significant incidents or specific,
observable behaviours can be recorded by teachers in anecdotal records. It records an accurate
description of the situation and comments or questions that may guide further observations.
When we record the behaviour of a child, sometimes it may be negative or displeasing which
may cause bias to stem from the observer. However, in anecdotes, the observer simply has to
write everything that he/she sees regardless of the incident that may be occurring. Anecdotes are
short, objective and as accurate as possible which is ideal for recording the development of the
child’s social interaction for our study.
When provided with opportunities to play and interact with each other, children will
begin to exemplify certain milestones in their development of social interaction. When a child

10. does not meet these milestones or they are showing more aggressive behaviours compared to the
milestones anecdotes can be used to record these behaviours that the observer notices. With
children at the age of 4-5, many assessment tools can be used. However, anecdotal records are
appropriate for the age group of 4-5 years old because they are one of the most factual recording
methods. Because of its nature (of being short, accurate and descriptive), since incidents often
occur relating to behavioural problems in this particular child in our study, we found that
anecdotes were a good method to use to record these incidents as they happened. They are also
appropriate because they help to preserve the details of the incident for later reflection and
analysis.

11. Frequency Counts
Frequency counts are a record of the number of times a specific behavior occurs within a
specific time period. Frequency counts are useful for recording behaviors which have a clear
beginning and ending, are of relatively short duration, and tend to occur a number of times
during the specified time period. It is also useful for establishing baselines for behavior that the
teacher wants to modify.
In order to perform a frequency count, the following are required:
 a specific time period,
 a specific behavior, and
 a method for tallying the number of events.
A tally sheet is usually used to identify the behavior being observed and to record the frequency
or the number of times which the behavior occurs. The observer simply makes a mark on an
observation sheet every time a particular behavior occurs.
Advantages of Frequency Counts:
 It is a quantitative measure on which to base strategies for change
 It is quick to record
 It is simple and easy to use since the basic procedure is to make tallies each time a
specific behaviour occurs.
 It is useful for quantitative and objectively measuring frequently occurring behaviours.
Disadvantages of Frequency Counts

12.  They reveal nothing about the details of the behavior or its context
 They can lose the raw data which means no details are recorded
 It only measures one kind of behaviour, making the result highly selective
 Allows the recorder’s bias into the recording
Why are frequency counts appropriate for assessing social interaction and the
selected age group?
Frequency counts are used to record an exact count of how many times a specific
behavior occurs (i.e. Mary gets out of her seat five times without permission during an activity
on painting). It is most appropriate for assessing social interaction because it is used by
observers who are interested in counting the number of times a behavior occurs. It does not
require too much effort, is fast, effective, and may not interfere with ongoing activities as shown
in the example below.
Example:
Behavior: Leaving seat during class time
Behavior Definition: Being at least one foot away from desk/seat during class, any time after
tardy bell rings. Includes times when has asked for permission to leave seat.

13. Frequency counts are appropriate to use as an assessment tool for 4-5 year olds because it
gives quantitative data on the specific number of times that a behaviour is repeated in a child.
Children at this age are easily distracted and having an assessment tool that requires more time
and energy can be ineffective for both the observer and the children. Since frequency counts are
in the form of a tally sheet it can easily be done during the day, or in one’s own classroom. It
will not disrupt or disturb the normal routine since it is relatively stress-free and quick to do.

14. Analysis of Data
Findings
Behavioral data relating to one child’s social status was collected from prospective teachers
through observation. Several components of social development include social dispositions,
social competence, social play, empathy, and emotional regulation. As abilities and knowledge
grow in the other domains of development, they affect the child’s social functioning. For
example, think through the relationships between social development and language. The child
must be able to understand what someone else is saying in order to interact. The child must have
communicative skills in order to enter into and remain in social situations (Ahola and Kovacik,
2007).
Finding 1
During early childhood, children have a surplus of energy that permits them to forget failures
quickly and to approach new areas that seem desirable, even if it is dangerous, with
undiminished zest and some increased sense of direction. On their own initiative (Erikson’s
third psychosocial stage of development), then, children at this stage actively move out into a
wider social world. This is shown when Tyriek plays with a toy knife in a manner that makes
him appear powerful and dangerous. Here is the anecdotal record in which this incident
happened:
“Tyriek goes to the language and literacy centre where he finds a computer and plays
(pressing buttons and opening and closing the lid) with it together with another girl for about
two minutes. They begin scrambling for the computer as Tyriek says, “It’s mine, not yours.”
Akayla repeats this line in as she keeps her hands on the computer. They begin pulling and

15. tugging the computer so that each of them can have it for themselves. Finally, Tyriek pushes her
and takes it while Akayla begins crying. He leaves and carries the computer to another table
where messiah is. He begins playing with messiah but he takes back the computer once again as
he said, “It’s not yours.” Messiah leaves and Tyriek puts down the computer and walks across to
the mats and sits by himself. He then gets up and finds a toy knife in the kitchen area. He shouts,
“I will chap somebody!” and passes the knife by his neck. A moment later he walks over and
tells me, “I have a knife. It is a toy knife.” He then puts down the knife and starts looking at
pictures in a book. He picks up the knife again and points at things in the book with it. After
reading the book he begins to hit his head repeatedly with the toy knife.”
One of the milestones from Gordon and Browne (2008) is that children develop ‘special’
friends* but shifts loyalties often. This can be seen when Tyriek is playing with Akayla but then
shifts his loyalty to Messiah. However, on both occasions he behaves very possessively over the
computer which angers him to lash out at his friends and take it for himself. We have found that
Tyriek is willing to play with others but he does not follow the conventional means of social
interaction where a child would ask another child to play with him. We have also found that
Tyriek resorts to aggressive behaviours when he is not pleased (as in the case of the computer)
and lashes out at others, including himself (when he began hitting himself with the knife on his
head repeatedly).
Finding 2
“Tyriek is sitting with Kristy using the rolling pin to roll out a piece to play dough. He
engages him in short conversations with other children around him a few times. He takes a
bigger rolling pin from Akayla and begins to roll out the play dough saying that he is making a

16. bigger fry bake. After he has finished his fry bake he walks over to another table. He grabs a
comb from Shania. When she says that she will tell Miss he pelts the comb back at her. He asks
Messiah if he needs help to make his fry bake but he removes himself from the table quickly. He
gets up and walks for a bit then he begins to push and pull the truck that a girl is playing with.
He leaves soon after and wanders around the learning centres occasionally picking up materials
but putting them back. He then sits alone with a book by a table.”
From this anecdote we have noted a pattern in Tyriek’s behaviour. We have found that he
usually tries to engage in social interaction with another child but it ends his some sort of
aggressive behaviour or with him withdrawing himself to another area. His attempts at social
interaction often fail probably because he is not familiar with the conventions of socializing with
other children. Simple things that other children do to communicate such as ask, borrow, lend,
and talk nicely to each other is not present in Tyriek’s attempts at engaging himself. According
to Gordon and Browne (2008), one of the milestones at this age is that children should ask
permission. This is not seen in Tyriek’s behaviour and in most cases, causes him to react
aggressively. We have also found that he tends to throw things at others when he lashes out or
does not get what he wants, similar to what was done when he grabs a comb from Shania and
pelts it back at her when she threatens to tell on him. Aggression and anger manifests itself with
attacks on another person. This is called ‘bullying’ and is a result of low self-esteem in the bully
himself. Hostile aggression can be verbal, physical, or both. It increases with age and is more
prevalent in boys than in girls. Tyriek is probably fearful, angry, confused, and insecure because
of failed attempts at social interaction or otherwise factors in his life that may be causing him to
behave in this manner.

17. Finding 3
Play is the child’s own style of learning in a free, expressive and safe way. Play advances
social development. The anecdote below shows how Tyriek attempts to engage in play and
social interaction with a peer.
“Tyriek sits on the floor, picks up a computer but then throws it back down. He gives the
computer to Akela. He picks up the cover of the lego bucket and rolls the cover to another child.
The child does not roll it back so he throws it aside. He goes to another area and picks up a
tambourine and play with it for a while. Shortly after he returns to the lego bucket cover and
picks it up again. He proceeds to roll it again to a peer. His peer rolls back the cover and they
continue this game for a long while.”
One of the milestones in Gordon and Browne (2008) is that the child chooses his/her own
friends and/or is sociable. This can be seen as Tyriek chose a specific friend to play with (rolling
the lego bucket cover) and tries his best to be sociable. Tyriek is seen taking turns and sharing
while rolling the lego cover to his peer. With play children learn to cooperate, negotiate, share,
take turns, and wait for a desired outcome. Although conflicts over toys arise at any age, children
begin to see other people with needs. They can verbalize more effectively so they can participate
more cooperatively and negotiate to solve problems. Here we found that he also shows social
understanding. Although he initially rejected rolling the cover to his peer, he ultimately
acknowledged his peer and sat and continued rolling the cover to his peer. The simple task of
turn taking requires social understanding and a child needs to anticipate another child’s wishes in
order to form an agreeable plan such as rolling the cover back and forth to each other.

18. Responsiveness and sensitivity to others is an important component of social competence (Ahola
and Kovacik,2007).
Finding 4
“Tyriek pushes a girl on a bike which causes her to stumble. She begins to cry and he leaves her
alone. He wanders to another area playing with a doll and combing his hair by himself. He uses
a kitchen utensil to pound on a hard surface for a while. Tyriek then wanders off to other centres
and areas but remains by himself. He takes a toy from another child and gets into an argument
about whose it is. He gives the toy back to the child after she insists it is hers and goes and sits
by another girl in a desk. He plays quietly alongside her- using a toy rolling pin to flatten some
play dough.”
From this anecdote we found that Tyriek’s mood changes very rapidly, a milestone for
social emotional development in children his age (Gordon and Browne, 2008). This can be seen
when he begins by pushing a girl on a bike, leaving to play by himself, taking a toy from a child
then getting into an argument and then returning to play alongside a girl. His emotions seem to
change frequently which leads him to do unkind and sometimes kind things. His attempts to
push the girl on the bike were probably mistaken as he may have been trying to help her go
faster, however the girl did not appreciate this and refused his help by pushing him away. This
caused a bit of anger and lashing out again. We also found that Tyriek usually plays by himself
or alongside others as his means of coping with not being able to form or maintain relationships
with his peers.

19. Finding 5
“Tyriek is playing with a musical instrument but suddenly rushes to see something
outside. A teacher calls him back inside and he returns. He tries again to push a girl on her
bicycle but she shouts at him to leave her alone. He then takes a toy from a boy and gets angry
when the boys asks for it and retaliates by hitting him. The boy hits him back and tyriek begins to
cry as he goes to a teacher and tells her what happens. After this, he returns to the centres where
he begins to cry again he tries to take something from another girl by they end up hitting each
other. He then moves to the science area and plays with a stethoscope by himself. He takes a
hammer and repeatedly pounds on the desk. Someone calls him but he ignores them. A boy walks
close to him and he starts to pound harder and faster on the desk. After a while he gets up and
wanders around to several learning centres. He picks up some books but thrown them back onto
the sleeping mats.”
Tyriek has shown that he has reached two milestones from his social/emotional
development according to Gordon and Browne (2008). Firstly, he is showing signs of hitting,
grabbing, and insisting on desires. Tyriek usually insists on his desires and wants but does not
take into consideration what the other child may want. This often leads to hitting and getting
into fights on a regular basis with his friends. He has also shown that he tests limits which is
seen when he constantly tries to take toys from others even though they do not like it when he
does so. However, from this anecdote, one interesting thing that we have found is that Tyriek
has a fear of other peers being physically close to him when he is angry or feeling rejected. This
was seen when a boy walks close to him and he starts to pound harder and faster on the desk with
a hammer. He desires to avoid social interaction with his peers during his moments of anger or
extreme rejection from attempts to play.

20. Recommendations for Teaching and Learning:
One of the most important goals we strive for as parents, educators, and mental health
professionals is to help children develop respect for themselves and others.” While arriving at
this goal takes years of patient practice, it is a vital process in which parents, teachers, and all
caring adults can play a crucial and exciting role. In order to accomplish this, we must see
children as worthy human beings and be sincere in dealing with them. Social relationships begin
at birth. This is evident in the daily interactions between infants, parents, and teachers. Children
are social beings with a range of behaviours they use to initiate and facilitate social interactions.
Because social behaviours are essential to create and maintain relations with others, healthy
social development is necessary for young children. Teachers and caregivers must provide an
environment for children to grow and thrive. They must provide close and dependable
relationships that provide love and nurturance, security, and responsive interaction.
Teachers/caregivers must also have knowledge of the social contexts in which children live to
ensure that learning experiences are meaningful, relevant, and respectful for the children.
Recommendations for Teaching
1) Firstly we think that teachers should support all the relationships that are the key to
children’s development; parent/child, teacher/child, teacher/family, and child/child
relationships. Children need these sustaining, caring relationships to give them a sense of
self- worth, trust in the positive intentions of others, and motivation to explore and learn
(Morrison, 2007 pg.263). Also plan new ways to support healthy relationships. For
example, to help Tyriek who has started to cuff and hit his peers, a plan for a teacher to
stay near to help him learn new behaviours to get needs met.

21. 2) Be Consistent: As teachers we must set clear, consistent, and fair limits for children’s
behaviour and hold children accountable to standards of acceptable behaviour. Teachers
should engage the children in developing rules and procedures for behaviour of their
class peers. For Tyriek, the key is to be consistent. You can’t ignore behaviors one day
and respond by shouting him the next. No matter where you are or what you’re doing,
try to be consistent. Since he is having a problem with hitting his peers, respond with
something like, “Hitting is not OK. You need to spend some time by yourself and calm
down.” Do your best to make sure you respond the same way every time.
3) Devote relatively small amounts of activity/class time to instructing children on how to
identify and label feelings and how to appropriately communicate with others about
emotions and resolve quarrels with other children e.g. using words instead of fists like
what Tyriek does.
4) Offer a pep talk ahead of time. If you know there are situations that are difficult for your
child, give him a little pep talk ahead of time. In this case, during situations where the
teacher may sense that Tyriek make react aggressively or get into a fight then the teacher
must prepare him for the situation before. It is worth having a very brief discussion with
him telling him what you expect before you enter the situation. For example, “You need
to play nicely. If you start hitting him/her or hurting your friends, we will leave
immediately. Do you understand?”
5) Provide alternative toys and stimulus- If you sense a child is getting bored or frustrated
with what they are doing be ready to suggest trying something different. A child who is
trying to do something they find very difficult may run out of patience and lose their
temper. Sometimes this happened with Tyriek. Another scenario is when children do not

22. have enough of one toy to play with. This happened very often with Tyriek as the child
who had a toy and there was only one of it refused to share. When this took place, Tyriek
would often hit or physically harm the other child to get what he wants. Watch out for
these signs happening and whenever possible have some diverting alternatives ready such
as extra of one toy or simply giving rules before going into the learning centres that we
must share the toy or take turns if there is only one of it.
6) Use modeling, role play, and group discussion to help Tyriek learn appropriate behaviour
around his peers.
Recommendations for Learning
1) The very first step is to be aware of the patterns that have been created over the years
with your child. Ask yourself, “What's the behavior I’m seeing, and what am I doing in
reaction to it?” Intimidation, name calling, bullying or other kinds of acting out behavior
are about your child and his inability to solve his problems appropriately. Understand
that patterns are particular to each person, situation and child. For example, some
teachers have trouble dealing with anger themselves. They jump right in, as soon as they
hear or see a problem, and blame the child. This only escalates the situation because if
you respond aggressively, it teaches your child that aggression is how you solve
problems. As a result, the child may not learn to behave any differently: he’ll also lose
his temper and be aggressive. In contrast, some teachers are more passive—but their
child may become aggressive due to his teacher backing down and not dealing with
issues directly. With Tyriek the teacher can be a gentle, quiet person and an effective
teacher—the two aren’t mutually exclusive—but you still need to be firm and set clear
limits.

23. 2) Redirect children to more acceptable behaviour or activity or use children’s mistakes as
learning opportunities, patiently reminding children of rules and their justification as
needed. Do not ignore aggressive or unsafe behavior. For example, “Tyriek, it isn’t safe
to throw blocks. Show me how you can safely build with the blocks.” “Tyriek, your feet
are for walking, not kicking. Show me your walking feet.” Reinforce the behavior you
are looking for. For example, “Tyriek you are using the blocks to build. That’s safe for
us all. You are making good choices.”
3) Be appreciative of their efforts- When you catch your child being good, be sure to praise
their hard work and efforts. For instance, if Tyriek is observed in a power struggle over a
toy that ends in them working it out peacefully with their friend, tell him how proud you
are that they chose to use their words instead of resorting to aggression to get their way.
Look for and continue to praise good behavior as a way to motivate him to do better next
time.
4) Read lots of positive books in class about topics such as friendship, helping hands,
kindness, sharing and not hitting. During the day reinforce the concepts from these books
by modelling and praising a good behaviour when it is done.
5) We need to listen and acknowledge children’s feelings and frustrations, respond with
respect, guide children to resolve conflicts, and model skills that help children to solve
their own problems. Wait until there is a period of calm and discuss your Tyriek’s
actions with them him a peaceful way. Explain to him the likely results of his actions.
For example, explain that when they hit or bite it hurts and that other children are
unlikely to want to play with them in the future.

24. Bibliography
 Ahola, D., & Kovacik, A. (2007).Observing and understanding child development.
Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.
 Gordon, A. G., and Browne. K. W. (2008). Beginnings and Beyond: foundations in early
childhood education. 7th
Ed. Clifton Park, N.Y. Thomson Delmar Learning.
USA.
 Mindes G. (2007) Assessing Young Children. Third Edition. Pearson Education Inc:
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
 Morrison, G. S (2007). Early childhood education today 10th
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