Name Pairing
Group language brings peers together.
Learning Seeds One Minute Solutions
Challenging Moment: Individual children are playing alone, focused on objects and missing opportunities to connect with peer play nearby.
A Strategy to Try: Name Pairing
Use the names of children together in the same phrase, through narration of their activities or in a sing-song voice. For example in the sandbox “Max and Izzy are digging and digging….Max and Izzy are digging and digging”. This helps form a sense that the peers are together in a group.
What Happens:
Hearing their names connected with their peers’ names, children are given a reason to see themselves as part of a group. If there is an existing group of peers, they notice the individual child and think of them more as a part of the group, which increases sharing and decreases conflicts. The group naturally shifts their bodies so they are facing one another, which can open the way for shared glances and/or mimicking of peer play.
