Prioritising and supporting children’s friendship skills development 

Key points

• Using video to document.
• Supporting friendship development. 

At KiNZ Myers Park in Auckland, the transient nature of families in the central city meant that the centre had a high turnover of children attending. This transience sometimes impacted children’s ability to make friends; therefore, "friendship-making" became a learning priority for the kindergarten. 

Video footage showed a group of boys making aeroplanes with LEGO^® and helped the teachers realise that one 4-year-old boy, Caleb, was attempting to use a number of strategies, unsuccessfully, to try to make friends. From analysis of this video, Caleb’s working theories about friendships appeared to include that you need to have something in common to be a friend, take an interest in what peers like to do, play in the same kinds of ways as peers, and talk with peers to become accepted as part of the group. He had an expectation that if he followed the “rules” of friendship activities, he could become friends with this group of boys. But it wasn’t that simple. The responses of his teachers were critical to his learning about being friends. Further observations and discussion with his parents helped teachers develop a plan to support him. Strategies were developed to support him in developing independence and making friends. Positive changes were observed as Caleb began to develop confidence, that also supported his smoother transition to school later on.