Facilitate Opportunities

One winter afternoon I arrived at my daughter Erica’s preschool to pick her up. The students in her class were in the hall putting on their snowpants and jackets getting ready to go out to play. My daughter was looking in her locker, then stood up, arched her back, wriggled her arms and made a noise that sounded like a chortling dolphin. The 3 year old boy next to her, looked up at me watching her and said, “She’s O.K. That’s just her happy noise.”

“This child did not know that I was Erica’s mother, so he interpreted her behavior for me just as their wonderful teacher Shirley Lewis had interpreted her actions for her classmates.”

Mary Barber, parent and teacher, Anne Arundel County Public Schools
 

As reflected in Erica’s vignette above, parents value their children’s peer relationships and play an active role in setting the stage for friendships among children with and without disabilities by:

• Choosing a neighborhood preschool, recreation event or child care program.
• Arranging and supervising informal and formal play experiences for their children.
• Talking about specific friends and their interests.
• Establishing expectations and play rules.
• Providing advice about making and keeping friends.
• Modeling social relationships through their own adult friendships and social networks.

Guralnick, 1997; Ladd & Pettit, 2002; Parke et al, 2002; Rubin & Sloman, 1984
 

Creating opportunities for friendships in group settings

Early childhood implementation teams can promote peer interaction by providing opportunities for children to play together in home and group settings. Planned opportunities for promoting friendships in early childhood group settings are highlighted in these video clips.

Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL):

Colorado Department of Education, Results Matter Video Library