Prompting prosocial behaviors, and then acknowledging such behavior when it occurs increases children’s positive interactions with their peers. Prompting and acknowledging strategies should be used together when possible.
 

Prompting encourages children to engage in social behaviors in three ways (Bovey & Strain 2005):

1. Behavioral Momentum

Before asking children to engage in new or emerging social behaviors, ask them to do something that they already know or are good at doing. Then provide positive feedback about their actions, and immediately ask them to follow a more complex social request. The key is to provide children with opportunities for positive attention before attempting an emerging social behavior.

Example: A child care assistant asks a child to clap her hands three times in a row before suggesting that she complete a task with a classmate.

“Linelle, you are a very fast clapper!" (positive reinfocement)

"Now, please ask Jodie to help you put the crackers at the snack table.” (practice selected social behavior)

2. Priming

Give children with specific cues about how to participate in social activities before the start of those activities.

Example: A teacher provides some direction to a child about playing with a friend.

“Francesco, who are you going to ask to play with you in the block corner today?” or “Tawanda, can you ask Phil to color with you in the art corner?”

Some children might need to actually practice the behavior first, so a teacher might prime a child further by suggesting,

“Tawanda, pretend I’m Phil and ask me to color with you.”

3. Correspondence Training

Ask a child to think about what he or she is going to do before a social activity begins and generate their own cues. After the child completes the activity, follow up what happened.

Example: A family care provider prompts Huang to consider what he’ll do when the children go outside.

“Huang, what are you going to do with Jamald when you go outside?”

Huang talks about riding the big wheels and is encouraged to ask Jamald to ride with him.

When the two boys are finished, the provider asks Huang, “What fun things did you and Jamald do with the bikes?”

Acknowledgment increases the likelihood that a child’s positive social behaviors will occur more frequently. After a desired behavior is observed (e.g., Shelley shares her crayons), the child is immediately rewarded with a verbal, physical or tangible acknowledgement such as:

Verbal: “Shelley, what a good friend you are to share your crayons with Kade!”

Physical: High fives, special “friendship” hand shake, thumbs up

Tangible: Stickers, wearing a “Super Friends” cape or hat, name on Friendship
Circle

Examples of prompts and acknowledgements

Prompts and acknowledgement are used to resolve play conflict in the following resources from the Center on the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL):

1. Using puppets (puppets talk through conflict) Video
2. Super friends (acknowledging children solving a sharing problem) Video
3. How can you share? (Two boys want the same toy) Video
4. Some starters for giving positive feedback and encouragement (Handout)