All My Children

Samantha is four years old and loves to play with the younger children in the pre-school and almost always chooses activities and toys associated with very young children or even babies. Whenever there is a free play session she will invariably choose from the box containing things like stacking toys and shape posting boxes. Sometimes Samantha will deliberately choose the starter puzzles with four or five pieces and do these over and over again. The staff are not concerned about Samantha’s progress in other areas.

Possible reasons for this behavior

Samantha:

• lacks the confidence to try new activities
• finds security in knowing that she will be able to carry out tasks easily
• may not have made friends with children of her own age
• may have a new baby brother/sister and she is playing with the toys that remind her of home
• may not have had a large variety of toys when she was very young and is discovering them for the first time
• may have a real fear of failure and chooses things she knows she will be able to do successfully

Strategies

Carry out focused observations about the kind of things Samantha is choosing, who she interacts with and how

• Let a ‘buddy’ help Samantha integrate with her own peer group
• Encourage Samantha to engage in more age-appropriate activities in small focused groups at first. This could be started by using a toy/equipment that is related to her favourite activity but which is more appropriate to her ability level

• Staff should highlight the things Samantha is good at if she is lacking in confidence and give her some responsibilities in the pre-school
• Let Samantha know that it is OK to fail — that everyone (including adults) makes mistakes or that when we do something for the first time it feels awkward and it may not work out instantly but that it is the same for everyone. She may need to observe this directly herself and staff may have to contrive some situations in which they ‘make mistakes’ and react in a level-headed manner. She may need to see people trying the same activity repeatedly in order to achieve results
• Talk to Samantha’s parents/carers to ask about her play preferences at home

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