- Provide stability in staffing, key person relationships and in grouping of the children.
- Plan opportunities for children to spend time with their key person, individually and in small groups.
- Encourage children to notice and include others in their play.
- Plan the environment to create spaces for children to play alone, alongside or with others as they choose.
- Provide time, space and open-ended materials for children to collaborate with one another in different ways, for example, in block play.
- Provide play activities that encourage cooperation and collaboration, such as parachute activities and ring games.
- Choose books, puppets, dolls and small world play that help children explore their ideas about friends and friendship and to talk about feelings, eg someone saying ‘You can’t play’.
- For young children who are finding it hard to make relationships in the group, develop other situations such as a forest school activity or a creative arts project that may be more encouraging
- Scaffold appropriate identification of when and how to ask others for help. Use resources, visual support, signs, and gestures to motivate and support the child to do this.
