All Modules B6-Development Matters in the early years | Page 10

Playing and Exploring, Active Learning, and Creating and Thinking Critically support children’s learning across all areas

2. Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Making relationships
Positive Relationships:

Enabling Environments:

what adults could do

what adults could provide

20. Interested in others’ play and starting to join in.
21. Seeks out others to share experiences.
22. Shows affection and concern for people who are special
to them.
23. May form a special friendship with another child.
24. Tries out new games and toys
25. Says “Hello” to others
22-36 months 26. Has a stronger sense of purpose in exploring environment
and games
27. Pretend play

• Ensure that children have opportunities to join in.
• Help them to recognize and understand the rules for
being together with others, such as waiting for a turn.
• Continue to talk about feelings such as sadness,
happiness, or feeling cross.
• Model ways of noticing how others are feeling and
comforting/helping them.

• Make time for children to be with their key person,
individually and in their key group.
• Create areas in which children can sit and chat with
friends, such as a snug den and cosy spaces.
• Provide resources that promote cooperation between
two children such as a big ball to roll or throw to each
other.

28. Can play in a group, extending and elaborating play
ideas, e.g. building up a role-play activity with other
children.
29. Initiates play, offering cues to peers to join them.
30. Keeps play going by responding to what others are saying
or doing.
31. Demonstrates friendly behavior, initiating conversations
30-50 months
and forming good relationships with peers and familiar
adults.
32. Has self-pride when achieving expected results
33. Enjoys the pleasure of own art
34. Introduces self to other children to initiate play
35. Selects a working center o play center organizing self
with friends
36. Helps adults with setting up for scheduled routines
37. Identifies personal characteristics and preferences
38. Uses language to relate with others

• Support children in developing positive relationships by
challenging negative comments and actions towards
either peers or adults.
• Encourage children to choose to play with a variety of
friends from all backgrounds, so that everybody in the
group experiences being included.
• Help children understand the feelings of others by labelling
emotions such as sadness, happiness, feeling cross, lonely,
scared or worried.
• Plan support for children who have not yet made friends.

PSED: Making relationships

A Unique Child:
observing what a child is learning

• Plan activities that require collaboration, such as
parachute activities and ring games.
• Provide stability in staffing, key person relationships and
in grouping of the children.
• Provide time, space and materials for children to
collaborate with one another in different ways, for
example, building constructions.
• Provide a role-play area resourced with materials
reflecting children’s family lives and communities.
Consider including resources reflecting lives that are
unfamiliar, to broaden children’s knowledge and reflect
an inclusive ethos.
• Choose books, puppets and dolls that help children
explore their ideas about friends and friendship and
to talk about feelings, e.g. someone saying ‘You can’t
play’.

40-60+
months

39. Initiates conversations, attends to and takes account of
what others say.
40. Explains own knowledge and understanding, and
asks appropriate questions of others.
41. Takes steps to resolve conflicts with other children,
e.g. finding a compromise.
42. Has groups of friends and ask to join a new one
43. Continues to show empathy for others taking care
and showing concern for classmates and others
44. Express affection easily to teacher, caregiver and
parents
45. Greets others by name
46. Solve problems talking, looking for options,
considering different perspectives before reaching a
solution
47. Understands what bulling is and responds looking
for help from adults when seeing or feeling its
precence

Self-confidence, self-concept and self-trust are
fundamental for creating good relations with other

• Support children in linking openly and confidently with
others, e.g. to seek help or check information.
• Model being a considerate and responsive partner in
interactions.
• Ensure that children and adults make opportunities to
listen to each other and explain their actions.
• Be aware of and respond to particular needs of children
who are learning English as an additional language.

• Ensure that children have opportunities over time to get
to know everyone in the group, not just their special
friends.
• Ensure children have opportunities to relate to their key
person, individually and in small groups.
• Provide activities that involve turn-taking and sharing in
small groups.

Early Learning Goal
Children play co-operatively, taking turns with others.
They take account of one another’s ideas about how
to organize their activity. They show sensitivity to
others’ needs and feelings, and form positive
relationships with adults and other children.

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