T led a game of pretend play where she, the narrator, and a friend roleplayed as mermaids in the ocean. T came up with scenarios like waking up, hunting for food, and going to sleep. When the others lost interest, T suggested using "mermaid powers" to catch fish. The narrator observed that T demonstrated leadership skills by assigning roles and coming up with scenarios. T also worked to incorporate others' ideas into the game. However, T refused to let other children join, saying there were only three mermaids allowed. The narrator concluded T needs to develop skills in including a wider range of peers but recognized this as a learning process. Strategies for the future included discussing inclusion,

1. My experience with T
Date: 26/05/2014
During the afternoon I decided to join T and her friend role playing
mermaids swimming in the ocean. T was leading the game saying “It’s
sleep time, time to go to sleep mermaids”, and so her friend and I will fall
asleep. When T decides it’s time to wake up she will then say “its morning
now, time to wake up mermaids” and so we would wake up and wait for T’s
next instructions. T had come up with a routine where we would first
wake up, hunt for food followed by “eat time” and then “sleep time”.
While we were playing I could see T and her friend losing interest in the
game so I asked T “What else can a mermaid do?” and she replied “Oh I
know, mermaids have special powers to catch their food”. T then put her
hands out and made a whosh sound with her mouth I asked her “What are
you doing?” she then said “I’m getting our fish for dinner”, and so her
friend and I began to join her and use our powers to catch our dinner.
I found what worked well was T’s showcase of leadership skills, by leading
both myself and her friend gave T a chance to develop her leadership
skills. T was able to assign our characters for instance T sorted our roles
saying “your mummy mermaid and you can be daddy mermaid and ill be the
little sister mermaid”, as well as creating scenarios and jobs for us to do.
“I’ve also discovered through Abraham Maslows theory the Hierarchy of
Needs, that T’s developing her self esteem and self actualization skills.
Through T’s gentle and respectful personality as well as graduating
gaining the confidence to becoming a potential leader unravels T’s positive
image of herself” (Berk, 2010)

2. I addition I felt that T works well with her friends, throughout our game
T was open to her friends ideas. When we wanted to add on to her
scenario T would patiently wait for us to speak our ideas and then she
would decide on weather she wanted to take on our ideas, stick to her
own or mix both ideas together. T would often try to mix both ideas
together; I found this to be an opportunity for T and her friend to put to
practice being open to each others perspectives and ideas. As my centre
follows the “Te Whāriki curriculum which encourages children to be open
to diversity and others opinions keeping in mind the importance of
developing a respect and positive judgment towards others” (Ministry of
Education, 1996). I believe that this was being developed and achieved by
T and her friend on that day.
Something I though that didn’t work as well as I want it to, was T’s ability
to allow the other children to join in on their game. When asked by
others T would say “but it’s too late, cause there’s only allowed 3
mermaids not 4” I asked T why and she explain to me a programme she
watches at home “has only 3 mermaids not 4”. I then asked T if we could
add one more mermaid and she refused. So I found that T needs to
develop the ability to play together with a group of children and not just
her and one or two of her peers. I believe it is vitally important that T
gains the skills to socialize with a wide range of children especially with
children whom are not of her age.
For next time I would get down to T’s level and talk to her about the
importance and pleasure we could get out of including children in her play.
“I could use open ended questions for instance “How would you feel if the

3. other children didn’t allow you to play in their game?” to help T realize
that excluding a child from play can hurt and is not nice” (Kay, 2006).
I could also bring in resources such as laminated fishes that the
mermaids could go and hunt for their dinner. As the ministry of
education points out the importance of setting up a simulating but also a
challenging and fun environment, so by providing resources that can make
the game more interest motivate T to lead and become more creative
with her ideas and interest in mermaids.
Maybe for next time I could bring in a book about mermaids and all sorts
of fishes in the sea, if T wanted she could bring something in of hers to
present for her show and tell to the class about mermaids and what their
capable of. This could help T become more confident in talking in front
of a group of her peers and if so break down the fears of working in a
large group.
I believe that by letting T lead the game gave T a positive sense of
feeling heard and valued by the teachers. I feel that by giving and
letting T make her decisions gave her the confidence to lead our game. I
also feel that inclusion is a process that T is slowly going through. By a
consistency of reminding T of the importance and positive outcome of
inclusion, T will develop and general sense of including other children.
Therefore fostering her social competence, I am keeping in mind that
children are learning the most simplest of survival skills and for that
reason I didn’t intervene but instead I asked and observed whether T
would to either include other children or not. But I feel that the

4. strategies to empower T’s social competence will be applied for next time
to guide her inclusion of other children.
Carolaina Mu’a
Reference List
Berk, L (2010). Development through the lifespan: International Edition (5th
ed.).
Boston, Ma: Pearson Education.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki matauranga mō ngā
mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand:
Learning Media.
Kay, J. (2006). Managing bad behaviour in the early years. London, England:
Continuum International Publishing Group.