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Interactions Support Learning

Working with preschoolers is about so much more than planning lessons. Good teaching is all about relating, interacting, and enjoying time with children. Your interactions create opportunities to help children learn.

You can turn your interactions into teachable moments throughout the day, every day. Teachable moments are ways to build on natural events in a child’s day. As you get to know each child, you will learn how to recognize and respond to these events. This is done by carefully observing children, providing an interesting learning environment, and using thoughtful communication. Make the most of teachable moments by: 

• Being a role model. Children learn by watching adults. When you wash your hands, read a book, or give a warm greeting, they notice.
• Joining children in play. You can help children expand their thinking and try new things during play. If children are pretending to be servers at a restaurant, you can join and order your favorite food. You can model language adults use at restaurants (“What’s the special today?” “May I have the check please?”).
• Using open-ended questions. Open-ended questions have multiple answers and encourage children to describe things in their own words. They are also helpful to guide the conversation: “Why do you think the elephant is sad in the story?” “How do you want this to look when you’re done?”
• Modeling the skills children need for an activity: “Hmm… I wonder where this puzzle piece will fit? I’m going to look at the shape and then try putting it in a few places. No, it does not go there. I’ll try another spot.”
• Noticing children’s interests and needs. Experienced teachers are able to recognize times when a child is on the edge of getting frustrated or angry. Perhaps the child exhales loudly, moves the materials a little too forcefully, or begins to look upset. These are moments when a sensitive adult can step in and help find a solution to the problem. Consider a few examples:

Verbal Interactions: Supporting Learning through Communication

As you get to know each child individually, you will learn about their development and their interests. Observe what makes each child smile, laugh, or seem challenged, and describe to them what you notice. This will help you use language in a way that supports cognitive development. Here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to verbal interactions: 

• Use short simple sentences that include descriptive language and are meaningful to the child. For example, “You stacked two green blocks on top of the red block.” Using the word “stacked” instead of “put” or “placed” introduces new language; using color names reinforces color identification; using “on top” is a directional word; and the number “two” supports math concepts. All of these expand learning in an appropriate way.
• Communicate and ask questions during play and routines. Talk and ask questions about what they are doing with a toy (pushing, pulling, twisting) or experiencing in an activity (predicting, sorting, identifying). This type of interaction teaches math and science concepts and boosts vocabulary in a natural way. Take time to pause and notice what they are doing. Give them time to respond with their actions or words. This encourages turn-taking and active participation.
• Include a variety of words and introduce children to new objects or ideas. Label familiar and unfamiliar actions, objects and feelings. Snack can be a great time to introduce new words. Consider bringing in interesting fruits or vegetables that the children may not know. During outdoor time, use the real names for tools, plants, and surfaces. A large vocabulary will help preschoolers become successful readers. 
• Be patient after asking a question or making a statement. Allow time for children to process what was said and respond. Too many questions can impede the natural learning process. 
• Extend children’s responses by repeating what the child says and adding a small amount of information to their response. For example, a preschooler might say, “Look at the tower I built.” You can extend the child’s response by saying, “I see the tower you built, it is very tall and sturdy.”

 How you talk to children makes a difference in their learning. One of the most powerful things you can do is use words that are encouraging and supportive. Take a few moments to compare the following types of comments:

Which type of comment do you think gives the child more information? The statements on the right side of the chart have more meaning, and they introduce the child to complex ideas and vocabulary. They let the child know you noticed their learning, but they also encourage the child to keep going. It is OK to occasionally say, "Good job," but look for opportunities to describe what the child is doing and learning.

Just like it is important to notice and use encouraging words when children show you their learning, it is also important to use encouraging words when children struggle or are frustrated. Children learn by taking risks and trying challenging things. Sometimes they make mistakes. Caring adults make the most of these moments. Approach children with a warm tone and avoid criticism. You might say something like, "I can tell you are disappointed, but that was a good try. I think the tower just got too high and that is why it fell. What if we worked together to build the bottom a little wider?" or "It looks like that is a tough puzzle. Have you found all the outside pieces?"

Playing to Learn: Physical Interactions

It is often said that play is children’s work. Play is the time when children explore their interests. Let preschoolers take the lead in play. Child-led play may be difficult for some adults to follow since we know how materials work and what typically goes together and therefore get things done quickly. But it is the process, and not just the result, where learning takes place. 

Some challenges during play and learning are OK. Allowing preschoolers time to work through an issue gives them time to solve the problem and builds their self-confidence. You can model something, such zipping your own coat, and then encourage them to give it a try. Providing just enough help to keep frustration at a minimum motivates children to learn new skills. This concept is referred to as “scaffolding,” a term coined by developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky. As the child learns how to avoid frustration with each step, the adult can provide less and less support. 

Scaffolding is a method of support that helps a child learn a new skill. According to Vygotsky, scaffolding occurs in the zone of proximal development. ZPD is the difference between what a child can do independently and what they can do with the support of someone who is more experienced. Scaffolding requires the following, which can be obtained through thoughtful observations and interactions (Gillespie & Greenberg, 2017): 

• Understanding of preschool development
• Understanding the ways children approach learning
• Establishing realistic learning objectives
• Matching strategies to each child’s interests, knowledge, and skills 

Child-led learning and play does not mean you are a not involved. Your questions and actions spur their curiosity, which leads to continued engagement and learning opportunities. Adults can increase learning by interacting with children and supporting peer play in different ways. Examples include:

• Helping children to expand their imaginary play by asking questions about what the child is doing or going to do.
• Using play to model new vocabulary words or focus on key skills from the curriculum. For example, an adult might comment on the “stethoscope” in the dramatic play doctor’s office. Or an adult who knows children are working on identifying insects might provide magnifying glasses, soil, and plastic insects in the sensory table. 
• Providing opportunities for children to actively cooperate: For example, suggest a goal for a center, “Let’s build a tower.”
• Staying close by and supporting play: Some children may need more support during cooperative play. Preschool teachers should observe which children need guidance and intervene in helpful ways: “It looks like you want to help build. Ask, ‘Can I play?’”
• Assigning roles: “Sasha, will you be the veterinarian first? Then Adam can be the veterinarian.”
• Helping children decide on steps to achieve their goal: “What should we do first?”
• Modeling communication: “Thanks for bringing that block over here. Our tower is tall! Could you please bring another block?”
• Interpreting children’s actions: “It looks like India wants to play store with you. What do you think she could do to help?”

The Role of Culture in Interactions

Understanding the meaning of the word “culture” in the context of this lesson is important. The word has different meanings to different people. In this context, culture can be described as the customs, beliefs, values and practices people learn from their families and communities. Everyone has a culture. It influences how we communicate, how we interact, how we interpret what people do and say, it even shapes our expectations. Culture plays a large role in how we raise children. 

Think about all the interactions you have daily with families, children, co-teachers, program staff, and your director. Each of those people has a culture. So, each day, you are interacting with many people, including preschoolers, who have their own values, beliefs, and practices. Plus, you have your own culture. That is a lot to take into consideration, but you need to ensure that your interactions respect the culture of each child you serve in order to create a safe, nurturing, and inclusive environment. 

Allowing negative biases to affect your duties as a teacher can negatively affect the development of the children in your care. When encouraging thinking skills, exploration, and problem-solving, teachers demonstrate bias when they have toys for boys and toys for girls, guidelines that boys may get dirty but girls need to stay clean, dramatic play for girls and building with blocks for boys. These are examples of gender biases; other biases involve race, ethnicity, language, and special needs. Awareness of your own biases is an important step in supporting cognitive development, as our beliefs influence how we care for children. 

Be aware of how your interactions support the learning of all children. Watch for evidence of bias like:

• Do you comment equally on girls’ and boys’ appearances and accomplishments? 
• Do you praise African American boys for their athleticism more than their cognitive development? 
• Do you comment on children’s size (e.g., “He’s going to be a football player”)? 
• Do you encourage both girls and boys to play active games? Do you encourage girls to “be careful” while saying “boys will be boys”? 
• Do you have conversations with all children—including those who may have speech and language difficulties or who are learning English?

When it comes to being culturally relevant, preschool children need to learn about their world and their community. Their community includes their families, you and their other caregivers, your program, and their neighborhoods. Consider implementing the following ideas into your classroom:

• Support the home language of children and their families by learning a few words from the child’s native language to help them feel more comfortable. 
• Maintain open communication with families on what materials you are providing to support their child’s cognitive development.
• Provide books in the classroom library that feature children of many different races, religions, or cultures.
• Choose to display pictures or artwork on the wall that feature a multicultural variety of children or incorporate fabric and other textiles relevant to cultures. 
• Provide students with paint, paper, and crayons with multicultural themes and allow students to choose the materials that they want to use.
• If you discuss one holiday in class, make sure to discuss them all. For example, instead of focusing only on Christmas, make sure to cover Hanukkah and Kwanzaa too. Make sure to discuss the Lunar New Year, Ramadan, and Diwali when the time comes too.

When you offer culturally relevant activities and materials that are based on preschool children’s real-life experiences you are supporting their cognitive development.

See

Watch this video to see how teachers promote learning during everyday interactions.

Now let us take some time to think about how you can identify opportunities to join play or help children learn through interactions--just like the teachers in the video did. Watch this video to see an example of a moment when an adult might have helped support learning.

Do

It is important to recognize a teachable moment when you see one. Teachable moments happen naturally, but it takes some skill to recognize and make the most of these moments. Here are some ways to interact with children that might lead to teachable moments:

• Observe each child and notice what sparks their interest: Does the child get excited when you mention a certain activity or idea? Does the child tend to pick the same center most days? Is the child more engaged during a certain story?
• Improve the learning environment so that it interests children: Provide more challenging toys; hang up new shapes or pictures in the classroom; draw children's attention to new objects.
• Find opportunities to practice learning goals in areas that interest the children: Practice sorting in a kitchen area; identify colors at the art easel; or write letters on a birthday card.

Additional guidelines about interactions that promote learning:

• Stay close. Avoid speaking to a child from across the room. Move to where the child is, sit or stand at their eye level, and have a conversation.
• Use children's names in conversations and pronounce their names correctly. Make sure children know that you care about who they are.
• Ask open-ended questions to promote thinking skills. Open-ended questions do not have a specific answer. They give preschoolers a chance to use their own ideas to form a response. Open-ended questions are thought to be especially helpful with learning because children learn their ideas are valued, they become more confident in explaining how they got their answer, and they are able to respond at their own level.
• Observe children's play and interactions. Get to know how each child prefers to relax, what types of activities they tend to choose, and with whom they typically choose to interact.
• Listen when children ask questions or make comments, particularly about differences or stereotypes. Give children factual, respectful answers. If needed, plan an activity that allows them to explore the topic in a meaningful and respectful way.