All My Children

Week Three

If all the children got on well in the second week and all seemed to benefit from playing together, it may be a good idea to keep the same grouping for the rest of the programme. On the other hand, if the adult feels that introducing a different child, either as well as or instead of the original friends, would be a good idea then this would be an ideal opportunity to do so.

By the end of Week Three it will probably become apparent if this input is having any effect. A short, formal observation using the same chart as before may be helpful to see if there are any pockets of major improvement or a noticeable lack of it. If there has been real improvement, then moving on to the second half of the programme can go ahead. However, if it appears that the child is still having major difficulties even socialising with one other child, then all the adults involved need to discuss the next best way forward. Having an adult working closely alongside the child may also have identified other difficulties that some children may be experiencing. Problems with naming colours, having poor hand—eye co-ordination or experiencing difficulties with expressive or receptive language may become apparent. Repeating Weeks One, Two and Three may well be the most feasible way of continuing the programme.

However, for the majority of children who respond well to this sort of programme it is normal to work on through the next three weeks of daily intervention.

Week Four

Sometimes it is not possible to keep the same member of staff working on the programme every week and if different personnel have to deployed on running the programme this can help to give valuable insight into a child’s adaptability to change. During Week Four a planned change of key adult can be included in the programme and notes made on the child’s ability to handle this change.

The fourth week should be the time for the adult to slightly step away from being part of the group and allow the children to generate their own conversations, providing the adult with an opportunity to do some observations and see how the social interactions are developing. The adult will need to be close enough, however, to step in and remind the children of rules, keep them on task, and defuse any potential upsetting or hurtful turns of conversation. Frequently used words should still be ’safe’, ’share’, ‘turn’, `friend’, ‘kind’ etc. When choosing the activities the adult needs to make sure that, for some of the time at least, there are not enough play items to go around so that the children need to come to an agreement on how to divide things up between themselves without the adult necessarily doing it for them.

The skill of negotiating and the concept of fairness will be essential when they move into mainstream school where there are fewer adults on hand to ’sort things out’. This is not easy for many children and the adult may want to discuss the possibility of ‘What would happen if . . .?’ before going out into the outside area. The large size sand timer can be very useful when discussing `fairness’ and ‘turns’.

The basic formula of the programme in Week Four remains the same but includes more ambitious activities such as making a cake or icing biscuits to be shared with others in the pre-school. Even tasks such as organising the drink and biscuits for the whole pre-school or helping to clear away may be undertaken, closely supervised by the key adult.

Week Five

In Week Five, if the children are co-operating well and have responded to the emphasis on turn taking and listening to others the adult may wish to introduce slightly more complicated or competitive games. For instance giant- sized snakes and ladders or an activity such as ‘Friends and family circle’ can generate a lot of discussion and information sharing.

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