‘Good-fit’ teacher–child play interactions and the subsequent autonomous play of preschool children.

   In this article, the particular study that was conducted was done with the purpose of testing a model of adult-child play interactions found in preschool classrooms. These studies were based on the work and theories of Vygotsky as well as neo-Vygotskian scholars. The reason behind this study was due to concerns that have been expressed in the past on direct adult involvement in children’s play. Researchers believe that when teachers and parents don’t interact with children at play, they are missing opportunities to foster early development. More specifically they are not helping enhance social, cognitive, and language growth. Contrastingly, other theorists argue that adult-child play does more harm than good in a child. Some theorists believe that play training imposes on children a single, correct way to play that may be incongruous with their interests, needs, and cultural traditions. Several studies conducted previously also show greater adult interaction is related to lower levels of social play. More cognitively oriented behaviors have been observed in children's self-guided play, compared with teacher-directed play activities. Because of this confusion on whether or not adult-child play is beneficial or not, some theorists have looked to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory for idea and influence. With his ideas on this particular theory, they have proposed a scaffolding strategy model in which adults tailor their involvement in play to the needs of individual children in particular situations and at particular periods in development. This is so that children can play in whatever way they choose to and the adult is only there for guidance. In this method adults can use a little indirect guidance, such as a question or hint, to help effectively enhance the child’s play instead of hindering the child’s interests.  When conducted, this method/model created by other researchers and theorists (based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory) predicted that adults will tailor the play support they provide to the immediate needs of individual children, and help guide them succeeding independent play. This study was conducted by having classroom interactions between eight Pre-K teachers and 32 students recorded and transcribed. The experiment was later critically analyzed for about 6 months. To confirm their results on the classroom behaviors were accurate enough, researchers also held private interviews with each of the 8 adult teachers in that 6 month period. Different types of play supported needed by children and the teachers were then identified. These differentiating types of adult-child play were used to create a coding system that was found to have high inter-rater reliability. Other analyses were conducted by researchers to determine goodness-of-fit between teacher responses and children's needs as well. They were determined to find as much accurate data as possible. Behavioral outcomes of a good fit were also being examined. Ultimately, the findings did support the model that was being tested. Most of the time, the teachers responded to children's play with behaviors matching the level of support needed. “Good-fit interactions” more frequently led to autonomous subsequent play than “poor-fit interactions”.

  Trawick-Smith, Jeffrey, & Dziurgot, Traci. (2011). ‘Good-fit’ teacher–child play interactions and the subsequent autonomous play of preschool children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26(1), 110–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2010.04.005