How can adults help children during play?

Adults play a crucial role in supporting children's play experiences, and guiding roles to encourage interaction is a key strategy for promoting social development. When adults facilitate roles within play scenarios, they encourage children to engage with one another, fostering collaboration, communication, and negotiation skills. This guidance can help children learn to express themselves more clearly, understand diverse perspectives, and work together towards common goals during play, which is essential for their social and emotional development.

This approach promotes active participation rather than leaving children completely to navigate social dynamics on their own. It also provides a structured way for children to learn the norms of social interaction in a play context, making the experience enriching and educational. By modeling and guiding, adults can enhance the quality of play and deepen the learning outcomes associated with these interactions.