Unison Trigger

Voices in unison actively bring a group together in pretend play.

Learning Seeds Engagement Strategies

Comic Strip by Cynthia Yuan Cheng

Challenging Moment 1: Individual children are playing in proximity but missing the opportunity to play together because they are focused on their own object play.

Challenging Moment 2: Children are focused on the attention and interest of the adult but missing the opportunity to engage with one another.

A Strategy to Try: Unison Trigger

Get the attention of each child and offer a motivating outcome — an opening or removed obstacle, an anticipated action or moment within the play theme — that will result if the children “say the magic word” or provide the “countdown” in unison. Let them know this will only work if they articulate the countdown or phrase together with precise timing, and that they’ll need to concentrate on one another’s words to do so.

What Happens: The focus on coordinating speech results in eye contact, awareness of one another, body repositioning, and connection that often fuels subsequent moments of connected play. Unison triggers can also help slow down rambunctious interaction when children need a moment to pause from a lot of physical movement and reengage in face-to-face contact.