Below are examples of Development tasks. Each day care center and childminder team have their own unique task based on the research results. The development models are unfortunately in Finnish. You can see the finished models in here. As you scroll down you’ll see that there are a lot of them! You will also find out that there is a lot of unique content.

1. How to make visible and processed the educational content that is not direct education?

Direct education encompasses only 19% of children’s activities between 8:00-12:00 hours. What things are left outside planning and evaluation? What parts of children’s activities have been neglected or remained invisible? The task would be easy if the invisible could be seen. In which aspects our views are too self evident? What things are so chaotic that they are difficult to take hold of? What are the real motives behind the educational objectives? What options do we have?

2. How to plan invisible things?

The more the children participate in the development of the activities the more of the planning is invisible. Most often the activities take shape as the activities progress.How to take hold of the weak signals of the future? Should we have top-ten lists, SWOT-analysis, brainstoriming, unconscious, brooding, planning models (the Pool, the Road, the Square and the River). or Sunz guidebook of war as tools for ECEC planning and evaluation. Seek for surprising combinations.

3. How do we change the emphasis from direct education to scaffolding childrens own activities and enrichment?

In Finnish day care centers scaffolded play encompasses only 1.97% of all activities. Scaffolded play is producing things together with children. When planning is not anymore just deciding what will happen in the future, planning becomes more like different ways to consider change. It is not easy to change planning for the present, to plan for things that sprout up here and now. What kind of practices will be needed to establish a planning routine in which we plan the activities together with children?

4. How could we increase the possibilities for being together and sharing during eating situations?

In Finnish day care centers children spent 20.4% of their time in eating situation and children’s attention was mostly unfocused.  With childminders the eating took only 8.3% of the time and the educators spent more time in open interaction with the children. During meals children and educators both add up to the ingredients of the social gathering and eating. How to plan that kind of eating situations? How to plan situations that raises fundamentally from the situation in is rooted in the unfolding interaction? How to plan things in which everybody can bring their own credits to the enrichment of the social situation?

5. What means would there be to increase the outdoor scaffolding, while still keeping an eye on children’s safety and respecting children’s autonomous activities?

children spend as much of their time in outdoor play (18%) as they do in direct education, outdoors should get as big a proportion of the educators planning time. Is there possibilities to rethink the role of the educators outdoors? What things are important when we plan the activities outdoors?

6. What tools do we have in enriching and deepening material play outdoors?

Children spent 44% of their outdoor activities in material play. However children’s involvement in material play is the lowest outdoors. If we could deepen children’s material play outdoors it would have a large overall effect in deepening children’s outdoor activities. How to get children more involved in play with toys and material?

7. What could there be learned from the childminders in nurturing children’s role play?

Role play is connected with skills, creativity and well-being. It is played especially in free play indoors, with another child or with several children. With childminders children play role play 20% of their time while in day care centers only 8.7%. Why the large difference between childminders and day care centers? Is the children’s practice in producing social artifacts together with others sufficient?

8. How to produce more situations in which the educators too can give their share in the test bench of personal development during role play?

In role play children attend 44% of their time to one other child and towards several other children 39% of their time. They attend mainly on the educators only 2.1% of the total time they play role play. This means that children build their play worlds together with educators rarely. It is great that children can create playworlds by themselves. However, the educator could give support children whose role play is not advancing and whose skills in constructing social structures have not developed adequately.

9. How could we decrease the amount of forbidden activity during basic care?

Forbidden activity (e.g. breaking the rules, teasing or disturbing) was observed to happen in 2% of the observations which is about 5 minutes between 8:00-12:00 hours. However, during basic care there were 3.4% of forbidden activities.The most of the forbidden activity happens during basic care. Disturbances in basic care are related to a busy and chaotic learning environment. How to make basic care situations more positive?

10. How could we break the vicious circle of forbidden activities getting a lot of attention from the educators?

Even though forbidden activity is only 2% of all activity in day care, the educators’ attention focus on it more than any other activity. 75% of the time children do something forbidden, the educators pay attention to it. Forbidden activity is a great way to get educators’ attention.

11. How could we increase children’s physical activity?

Young children should move actively and exert themselves for two hours a day. Nevertheless, children get only 24 minutes of high physical activity between 8:00-12:00 hours.  This time includes physical education, field trips outdoor activities and sports. We need radical changes in children’s physical activity.

12. How could we include more physical activities in direct education and teaching sessions?

In direct education 77.3% of the activities are physically low activities. High in physical activity are only 6.6% of the activities which is is about three minutes in a day. This time encompasses also all kinds of teacher directed sports and physical exercises. Direct physical education is not obviously working as it should.

13. How could we get more physical ingredients to add up to historical-societal orientation?

In direct education 77.3% of the activities are physically low activities. High in physical activity are only 6.6% of the activities which is is about three minutes in a day. This time encompasses also all kinds of teacher directed sports and physical exercises. Direct physical education is not obviously working as it should. On option is to include physical activities in all kinds of teaching and direct education. How could we add physical activities into historical-societal orientation?

14. How could we get more physical ingredients to add up to esthetic orientation?

In direct education 77.3% of the activities are physically low activities. High in physical activity are only 6.6% of the activities which is is about three minutes in a day. This time encompasses also all kinds of teacher directed sports and physical exercises. Direct physical education is not obviously working as it should. On option is to include physical activities in all kinds of teaching and direct education. How could we add physical activities to spice up esthetic orientation?

15. How could we get more physical ingredients to add up to ethical orientation?

In direct education 77.3% of the activities are physically low activities. High in physical activity are only 6.6% of the activities which is is about three minutes in a day. This time encompasses also all kinds of teacher directed sports and physical exercises. Direct physical education is not obviously working as it should. On option is to include physical activities in all kinds of teaching and direct education. How could we add physical activities into ethical orientation?

16. How could we get more physical activities into mathematics orientation?

In direct education 77.3% of the activities are physically low activities. High in physical activity are only 6.6% of the activities which is is about three minutes in a day. This time encompasses also all kinds of teacher directed sports and physical exercises. Direct physical education is not obviously working asi it should. On option is to include physical activities in all kinds of teaching and direct education. How could we add physical activities into mathematic orientation?

17. How could we get more physical activities to be included in natural sciences orientation?

In direct education 77.3% of the activities are physically low activities. High in physical activity are only 6.6% of the activities which is is about three minutes in a day. This time encompasses also all kinds of teacher directed sports and physical exercises. Direct physical education is not obviously working as it should. On option is to include physical activities in all kinds of teaching and direct education. How could we add physical activities into natural sciences orientation?

18. Is there something in the practices of the childminders that could be applied in day care centers too?

For example, even though the children are a little bit younger in general with childminders basic care took only 11.3% (27 minutes) of children’s time whereas basic care took 13.9% (33 minutes) in day care centers. On the other hand, childminders had more time for scaffolded play (6.0%) per child than educators in day care centers (1.7%). Could the daily routines be thought anew?

19. How to enrich children’s physical activity in different seasons, especially summer?

In the outdoor activities children’s high physical activity decreases from January (40.5%) to May (23.7%). Part of this change describes the positive effects of warmer climate making more versatile activities possible. How could summer mean more versatile physical activities?

20. How to increase the possibilities and allure of winter activities and thus children’s physical activity?

Children’s outdoor activities increase from January (10.1%) to May (25.4%). However, in January children are highly physically active 40.5% of their time while in May only 23.7%. By increasing outdoor activities during winter we could easily increase children’s physical activity. What kind of things do motivate children outdoors in January?

21. How could the educators scaffold children into more physical activity during spring and summer in outdoor activities?

Educator scaffold is very low outdoors. In January it is 4.0% and in May only 1.8%. In May children have more possibilities to get involved in their own activities and the educators do not interfere. This is often good but at the same time it means that the educators do not activate children physically when needed.

22. How to strengthen the ties between children and the development of peer relationships?

During the year children’s attention towards each increases. The amount of attention focused on educators decreases from 14.3% to 12.1%. That does not mean that the educators influence is not important. It just means that the educators impact is indirect and often invisible. The educators’ impact is important as a facilitator of social relations between children. ECEC teachers needs to learn to evaluate their impact not only through their personal relations with children but also as the construction of a shared well-being.

23. How can we increase the amount of rule play in preschool education? How to build educational content in rule play?

Especially in preschool rule play is highly involved activity with ample possibilities for learning. Rule play is also very involved during direct education. Unfortunately only 3.4% of direct education in pre-school includes rule play. If rule play is such a good way to involve children in activities, it is worth increasing also in direct education.

24. How to increase the possibilities and interest in rule play outdoors for preschool children?

Outdoors children’s involvement is the highest in rule play which describes children’s close relationship with the content of the activity. The high involvement and high physical activity of the preschool children make it a valuable activity outdoors. Unfortunately it only encompasses 4.2% of the outdoor activities of the preschool children.

25. How to save preparing time in direct education?

Teaching is often adult-initiated and planned activity. Preparing good teaching may take resources from preparing other activities, which are potentially important for children’s well-being too. Could the daycare center educators specialize in their teaching field, the division of labor thought over or could the children themselves take part in the preparation of teaching? Could a well prepared and effective lesson be adapted to several groups of children?

26. How to change the objectives of direct education from defining specific skills and towards meta-cognitive skills?

If the objectives of the direct education are concentrated on a particular objective that should be attained, children’s initiatives of change or children impacting the educational may disturb the reaching of the objectives. However, if the objectives include children learning to steer their personal and shared skill acquisition, children’s participation can be seen as a positive initiative. Examples of meta-cognitive objectives in different orientations could help.

28. How to include role play into direct education?

Role play is nearly non-existent (about 1%) in direct education. Nevertheless, it is a promising means of direct education both for high involvement and physical activity. An additional bonus is the possibility for children to explore their own motives and experiences in a flexible make-believe situation. How to include role play in different orientations?

29. How to add the peer impact in direct education?

Direct education seems to be quite heavily a teacher-centered activity. Other child (7% of the time or children (8%) are rarely child’s central objects of attention. However, children are a huge resource for educational content. With other children there is more room for influence and personal feedback. By letting the children participate in the progression of the activities the teacher could get a better grip on children’s orientation and the children could experiment with their orientation, eventually becoming more aware and skilful in confronting different tasks.

30. How to include rule play in direct education?

Children were most involved in their activities during rule play and their physical activity level was also high compared to other activities in direct education, which makes it a very potent tool for effective learning. Still the rule play was used seldom. Is it possible to connect a meaningful learning content and the appealing attraction of a game?

31. How to raise the physical activity level in task work during direct education?

Task work during direct education seems to be a low activity physically, containing work at the table, using the pen and paper and doing the task in one place. Because task work (especially in Finland) is a central aspect of direct education, raising the physical activity level considerably would make a difference. According to the analysis, physical activity and mental involvement do not rule each other out. In fact they are mildly positively correlated (r = .066 n = 29804, p < ,0005).

32. How to raise the physical activity level during reading, performance etc.?

Children activity level during reading is physically lowest of all activities (M = 1.077, SD = .286). Of the 2261 observations an astonishing amount of 2099 (92.5 %) was low physical activity. How could we change the self-evident fact that in the reading sessions children do not move to a self-evident fact that the children get all-round physical activities during reading?

33. How to raise the physical activity in teaching sessions?

Children’s physical activity was the second lowest (M = 1.309, SD = .504), when children were acting according to the general frame of direct education. This action included more teaching and adult-orientation than other activities. There is no good reason why teaching should be related to low physical activity. Is there a general principle how to raise the level of physical activity during teaching? It is possible that the effectiveness of teaching increases when whole body is included in the process.

34. How to engage children in the planning process of the direct education?

It takes time for children to get practice to participate in the production of the processes. Children’s participating in the planning process does not necessarily mean that children decide what is done. In direct education the teacher can make it a habit to leave certain aspects of the activity open and children can train themselves in the production of learning content. Is there a general principle of doing this? How could we increase children’s participation in determining the content of the direct education?

35. How to make the interaction during direct education more open-ended in small groups?

Educator’s open ended interaction increases children’s involvement in small groups. For bigger groups open interaction does not have the same effect. Probably open-ended interaction during direct education results in too diverse situation for effective learning. In small groups children’s initiations are easier to incorporate into the whole. Educators can make a conscious choice to invest on open interaction during small group interaction. What could this mean in practice?

36. When to raise the amount of small group activity in direct education?

Direct education in small groups is more focused and the teacher has a better possibility to attend to each child’s personal situation. Children also have better possibilities for participation. However, the educators resources are limited. if all the activities are conducted in small groups the overall amount of direct education gets smaller. In the end, probably both big and small groups have something valuable to offer to children. In big groups it is easier to give information and to work on the ready-made educational objectives. Ins smaller groups the content of the education is done during the interaction. To raise the consciousness of the different pre-requisities would make more meaningful direct education. Try to make concrete examples where big and small group direct educations could be applied.

37. How to raise children’s personal input in learning content?

Children’s personal input raises children’s involvement and helps children to see the impact of their views thus becoming more aware of their choices. There is simple mathematics for raising children’s input: 1) The more open-ended the planning and actual direct education is, the more children have room for input. 2) The smaller the group, the more personal room children have for personal input. 3) The more the activity is concentrated on peer to peer relationships, the less hierarchical is the input process thus giving room for direct impact. On the other hand, not every activity needs to have children’s personal input. Where should children have more input in the educational content and how should the situation be arranged concretely. Give examples.

38. How to give room for peaceful places for role and imaginary play?

Role and imaginary play seems to be most involved and frequent in places with far away from others and no disturbances from others, including adults. In day care there is never too much room. How to give room for secluded corners. How to tailor places evoking imagination?

39. How to get children’s imagination flowing already in the beginning of free play?

Role play takes time to develop. An imaginary situation with rich roles in is not ready, it needs to be processed. How could the educators help the children in getting the play situations already heavy with meanings? How drama, tales, discussions, could help children embrace a role even in the beginning of the free play. How could the toys and materials have more imaginative content in children’s play? How to load the environment with creative adventure?

40. How to give time for the play situations to develop?

At least in Finland there is already a lot of time spent in free play. The other activities are also important. However, meaningful free play needs time to develop. It seems to be more important to have long periods of free play than to have frequent periods of free play. How grading, differentiating, changing schedule and small group activities could facilitate more persevering free play?

41. How to raise the intensity of toy and material play?

Toy and material play is by far the most frequent activity for children of all ages and all kinds of day care. However, children’s involvement is lower than in other popular plays. By intensifying children’s processes during material play of the whole free play would be intensified and processed more deeply. Scaffolded play could be one way to help children get more involved in material play. Could Montessori give some ideas in meeting children’s developmental needs with playing with materials more accurately? Children with different age need both different materials and different aspects of action in their activities. How to make the materials appropriate for children’s interests and development? How to help children find ways to work with the material enriching their play processes?

42. How to help children get started with rule play?

In rule play children seem to need more adult’s initiation and attention to get started. When children are playing rule play they are very involved. What is needed to get children motivated to play more rule play and get started? The adults can also help children to be persistent about playing the game properly. How is this done?

43. How to make rule play rich with educational content?

Rule play engages children fully. However, some rule plays have repetitive simple rules based on chance. How to give rule plays more social and cognitive content? What plays could be both engaging and having content to process? Which role plays would help children to involve personally in the game thus making it possible for children to process the personal themes of success, failure, effort, chance, luck and skill.

44. How to make the indoor environment friendlier for children’s physical activity in free play indoors?

Free play indoors does not evoke physical activity. In fact physical activity is often related to action not allowed. How to use ceilings, walls corridors and tight places to facilitate physical activity indoors? How to differentiate the play area for different levels of physical activity?

45. How to make children’s role and imaginative play more physically active?

Only 8.0 % of children’s role play indoors is having high physical activity. How to make it possible for children to play role plays that involve high levels of physical activity? How to make intense physical activity a positive aspect of indoor role play?

46. How to make children’s play with materials more physically active?

Only 7.5 % of children play with material is highly active physically? For a physically active material play the environment needs to be suitable for physical activity and the material needs to be robust and big enough for physical effort. There needs to be enough room and the place needs to be ready for heavy duty work. How to make these requirements work during everyday activities?

47. How to make children’s rule play more physically active during free play indoors?

Only 7.5 % of children’s rule plays indoors is highly active physically. Physically active rule plays need maybe a lot of room, special equipment and adjustment from others. Could we have schedules, sports clubs or more effective use of the hall. How to make physically active games a part of everyday activities?

48. How to start a scaffolded process with children?

Unique processes are not replicated. They are unique shared processes between children and adults. The educators could not make a similar process next year. If the children do have a real impact on the process they will be more involved and the process will change. The development task is to describe different ways to get the evolving process going. How can we get the children involved in a scaffolded process? One or several cases of successful and not successful examples would help. The cases can last anytime between one day and one year.

49. How scaffolded play could be applied in historical-societal orientation?

How to help and enrich children in their process of getting the objects and documents from the past into the play? How can we make the picture of the past come alive and be worked by children to produce a picture that has children’s fingerprints on it?. How could we involve grandparents and relatives? How could we Involve the nearby neighborhood in a scaffolded play process? One or several cases of successful and not successful examples would help. The cases can last anytime between one day and one year. The cases should show both the impact of adults and children.

50. How scaffolded play could be applied in mathematical orientation?

For example, children do real world math in the restaurant, bank and beauty salon. How to get started with a scaffolding process that involves comparisons, conclusions and calculations in a playful manner? How to implement mathematics in the processes that the children themselves are taking part planning? How can the materials, objects and equipment that children find interesting to be included in a shared and evolving process? One or several cases of successful and not successful examples would help. The cases can last anytime between one day and one year. The cases should show both the impact of adults and children.

51. How scaffolded play could be applied in natural sciences orientation?

How do involve animals and plants in scaffolded play? How can we experience the different seasons and the weather in the play together with the children? How do we make the best of the outdoors and environment? How can we get children to take the role of a natural science researcher or animal hospital etc. ? The nature has its own path. How can we follow it? The nature may be impacted by our actions. How to study it with children? One or several cases of successful and not successful examples would help. The cases can last anytime between one day and one year. The cases should show both the impact of adults and children.

52. How scaffolded play could be applied in aesthetic orientation?

How do we make an orchestra, record factory, publishing agency? How do we build a library with books made by children themselves in them? How do we use exhibitions, concerts, drama, plays, videos, magazines and audio to produce art and joy for children and adults alike? How do we engage children in a creative and expressive scaffolded play with experiences of feeling, motivation, rhythm and excitement. One or several cases of successful and not successful examples would help. The cases can last anytime between one day and one year. The cases should show both the impact of adults and children.

53. How scaffolded play could be applied in ethical orientation?

The questions of justice, equality, respect and freedom are part of every child’s life. How can we process them in scaffolded play? To process feelings of fear, anxiety and guilt in a safe environment is important. How the children could do their part of saving the world? How could the children help animals, peers, family, elders, children in other countries or the nearby community? One or several cases of successful and not successful examples would help. The cases can last anytime between one day and one year. The cases should show both the impact of adults and children.

54. How scaffolded play could be applied in religious-philosophical orientation?

Children’s beliefs have their roots in the early childhood. It is difficult to believe things you have not perceived or experienced. Weddings, funerals, christenings, feasts, festivals and other practices offer educators the possibility to use scaffolded play as a tool to increase children’s sensitivity to the spiritual and philosophical aspects of the daily life. How to connect children’s experiences with the symbols of beliefs? Could a setting of a hospital, church or different cultural phenomena trigger a scaffolded play project? One or several cases of successful and not successful examples would help. The cases can last anytime between one day and one year. The cases should show both the impact of adults and children.

55. How to build up a versatile learning environment?

To build up an engaging learning environment is not an easy task. It is not possible to just show a place with materials and expect the child to start to do meaningful processes with it. The child needs to be introduced to the environment, the child may need examples to get interested in the environment. The child may need help in using the different aspects of the learning environment. The learning environment needs also to be versatile enough to facilitate children’s creative tendencies to produce new artifacts to the environment. Try to build up a few learning environments together with children and report an example.

56. How could we build up a learning environment to enhance mathematical orientation?

How can we build a learning environment that engages children in making comparisons, making conclusions and calculations within a conceptual system? What kind of play environment would enrich children’s mathematical thinking. How do we introduce the quantity and order into children’s processes? The learning environment should have a function outside mathematics to get children to start thinking concrete mathematics. Thy to build up one or several learning environments with children and report an example.

57. How do we build up a learning environment to enhance natural sciences orientation?

A learning environment with natural sciences orientation needs to engage children in observing, studying and experimenting. Should we build a rocket, a submarine, a robot or a machine? Should we look under ground or to the sky? Should we study nature as a physical, chemical, biological or geological level? To be meaningful and engaged the learning environment needs to have some conclusions and results too. To keep the environment alive we need to plan several stages for possible development. Try to build up one or several learning environments and report an example.

58. How to build up a learning environment with historical-societal orientation?

In a historical-societal learning environment children can get in contact with the objects and documents from the past. Children can build up their own environments describing their family histories or their neighborhood. Clothes, materials, customs, tools and spaces help children in connecting with the past. How do we engage children in the learning environment? How do keep up children’s interest and make the history come alive with a space for children to wonder? Try to build up one or several learning environments and report an example.

59. How to build up a learning environment with aesthetic orientation?

To put crayons and paper on the table is easy, but to involve children in observing, listening feeling and creating is not self-evident. At least some children need examples, encouragement and nourishment for intuition. The learning environment needs to be robust enough to facilitate different feelings and be versatile enough for the creative work to develop to different directions? Try to build up one or several learning environments and report an example.

60. What would a learning environment for religious-philosophical orientation look like?

The future is built on past. Should we build up a weekly speaker’s corner? Should we create a make-believe world with Greek gods with their powers, philosophies and frailties? Should we have a small silent space in our noisy day care center, where children can be all by themselves and collect their thoughts? To evoke the religious-philosophical orientation we need to let go of the busy activities and have enough time to let the thoughts and images to gain depth. Try to build up one or several learning environments that could help the child to stop and enjoy some peace and quiet. Report an example.

60. How children’s physical activity could be enhanced even further during play with toys and physical setting?

Approximately half of children’s time in outdoor free play is spent in playing with toys and the physical setting. Play is quite active physically, but still it is the second lowest of all activities. If children’s physical activity during playing with toys were higher it would have a huge impact on children’s physical activity in general. How to make children play with toys and physical setting more demanding?

61. Taiwan: How to make room for more free play outdoors?

The physical activity of Taiwanese children is alarmingly low. The key for physical activity is free play outdoors.

62. How to make the day care yard friendlier for different rule plays?

Rule play seems to need a secluded place to flourish and last. Different rule plays have different needs for space and equipment. How to organize the yard to facilitate a versatile and good quality rule plays?

63. How to get children more engaged with rule play during free play outdoors?

Often children need educators’ or more skilled peers’ help in getting started with rule play. When children have mastered the idea of the play and experienced the excitement, the children can manage rule plays more easily if the environment allows. What rule plays offers children a long-lasting and developing engagement in the play? How to help the children to keep the game exciting for long periods of time?

64. How to make the day care yard friendlier for different role plays?

Stimulating materials, properties and secluded corners can help children’s to enrich their role plays further. How to enhance the possibilities for role play during free play outdoors? Would it be possible to differentiate the yard with different themes and corners in same way different corners and themes are applied indoors? Is there a way to make the role play environment to last for longer periods of time?

65. How to make the play culture in free outdoor play more stimulating for role play?

The yard seems to catered for play with toys and physical setting. How to help children in adopting different roles in outdoor play? How to stimulate children into developing complex social systems needed for a meaningful role play among children? How to put more emphasis on drama during free outdoor play?

66. How could the educator facilitate for children’s physical activity during free play outdoors?

Children are less physically active when the educator is near. How could this tendency be reversed? There maybe is a need for conscious plan for the educator to activate children physically. The role of outdoor supervisor needs to be changed into a more activating role. How can this be done?

67. How to make more room for children’s physically active and more involved plays?

Distance increases both physical activity and involvement. However, the space is limited. How to make use of the space more efficiently? Is the whole yard fully utilized? How to help children run within and explore all of the yard? How to extend the limits of the outdoor yard? Is it possible to enlarge the space vertically?

68. How to help girls to become more physically active during free play outdoors?

Boys are generally more active physically in different activities. How could the physical activity of the girls be enhanced? Should the roles expectations be abolished or should there be more physical activities specially designed for girls?

69. How to help the youngest children to have meaningful activities during free outdoor play during winter months?

The youngest children seem not to have enough engaging activities during winter months outdoors. Or perhaps their clothing prohibits their activities. The youngest children also are the least physically active during winter time (see development task 0). Obviously the youngest children could get something else from outdoor activities than fresh air. Is this possible in the harsh conditions of Finnish winter?

70. What kind of rule plays would be good for scaffolded play outdoors?

The children’s physical exertion is largest in rule play; still it was encouraged very little. What kind of rule plays would be best for physical activities? What kind of activities would interest the children most? Which rule plays would be best for children’s condition and skills? What equipment should we have to have effective rule play? How should we enhance our yard to improve the facilities for rule play?

72. How do we enhance children’s safety and not yet prohibit their physical efforts?

The yard has been covered with rubber pavement for children’s safety. There is no sand anywhere. There is a small sandbox that can be barely seen in the right side of the, but the sandbox was covered to avoid animals messing the sand. The equipment’s safety was monitored daily with a complicated and detailed list with a different educator having responsibility of the safety each week. There are no sticks of any kind to play with and there are no big movable objects you could hurt yourself with. There are no stones to climb to and absolutely no mud to build cakes of. Children are never far enough from educators to have time to build up any dangerous ideas about doing something different. It was a mixed feeling: children were thoroughly scaffolded, but the support was perhaps too close. And all too soon (after 30 minutes in a wonderful autumn weather of a temperature about 24 Celsius) the outdoor activities were ended and it was time to go inside the day care center.

73. Finland: Does the division of labor need reconsidering in scaffolded play?

To see 12 educators in a day care center with a staff with a  total of 13 people doing scaffolded physical activities during outdoor play is something to think for in Finland. Children’s free outdoor play is important and positive thing with many advantages. It should be nourished. But scaffolded play would give the educators an educational tool to enrich, encourage, intervene and help children in when it would be appropriate. This enhanced scaffolding should be done carefully, not disturbing children’s personal and social production. How could the educators change their division of labor or orientation to make a little bit room for a more shared outdoor activity?

74. How to help children to relate to the dangers of everyday life?

Safety is always first. However, where was the excitement for children to build their own plays without the adult intruding in the above example? How could the children ever learn to foster their own life and train their skills in steering their life into a meaningful direction? The outdoor activity time was so short that it would be frustrating for children to start any meaningful process only to find out that the play would be stopped just when it was getting interesting. The educators seemed to do a lot of activities serving the children. However, the activities did not really serve children’s personal system organization, that could help children in their self-organizing their and others life-paths. There just was not enough room to make an own path in the outdoors. On the safe rubber-tiles no children’s traces were to be seen. The world was ready-made. The teachers were busy helping children at every possible bump, so it seemed difficult for the children to learn to climb the obstacles or to learn to evaluate the worth of climbing the mountain. The yard was like mild amusement park with ready-made activities.

75. How the sense of adventure and exploration is added to outdoor scaffolded play?

Role play during scaffolded play outdoors had the second highest activity level in Finland (but was quite low in Taiwan). Role play is a way of doing scaffolded play outdoors that has potential for children’s physical activities. However the potential was not utilized, the amount of role play both in Finland and Taiwan was almost non-existent during scaffolded play outdoors. Children’s sense of starting an adventure, journey through unexplored, exciting terrains with a healthy amount of physical exertion should be strengthened. What possibilities are there to have children build the yard, make huts, develop villages or use big scale material? Are there safe ways for children to make environments that could last longer time than one day?

76. A task for Taiwanese day care: Children’s relation to diverse natural environment needs reconsideration

There was a day care center (this time private), that the Finnish researcher visited. This time it was afternoon when usually the children in Finland were outdoors having free play. The private day care center had a surprisingly big yard. Nevertheless, there was not one single child in the whole beautiful yard. The big yard had a big and expensive looking sandbox. We went to have a closer look, but there was neither one single footmark nor hand mark on the sand. Nobody had touched the sand for a long time. The sandbox had actually started to grow grass. In the private day care center there were more than two hundred children in the day care center present, there was a wonderful yard attached and the weather was just perfect. The children were all in the classrooms studying, except one group, which was having physical exercise, not in the yard but on the corridor near the classrooms. The children were playing a game of relay race, which in practice meant that the children were waiting in lines and one child run into a post, then the child run back. All of the other children were waiting their turn. The alarmingly low observation of Taiwanese children, having only 1.35 mean physical activity on a scale from 1 to 3, started to make sense. How could we break the wall between classroom and wild outdoors?

77. How to scaffold long lasting processes also in the outdoor scaffolded play?

In the Taiwanese example the children were taken good care of with many engaging and supporting activities, always a supporting adult available. There was support, engaging ball games and personal consideration. However, the long-lasting process described earlier was non-existent. The educators seemed to do a lot of activities serving the children and guiding them. However, the activities did not really serve children’s personal system organization, which could help children in their self-organizing their and others life-paths. The children were activated but there was just not enough room to be an agent for change. The example is from Taiwan but also in Finland the important safety issues and regulations can make the creative building of the outdoor environment difficult. How do we give children a rich soil for personal and shared processes that have an effect on the outdoor activities and the environment? An example of a long-lasting process, in which children’s impact could be seen would help.

78. How to make the climbing frames and large scale equipment available for children’s input?

The climbing frames of today are often well-designed, usually safe and provide a lot of opportunities for different kind of play. However, after the children have stopped playing in the climbing frame, the frame has not changed at all. The child has not impacted the physical environment. In which ways could children participate in the development, creating, architecture and alterations of the equipment? The outdoors is vulnerable for all kinds of overnight intruders. Is there a way to build a new climbing and physical activity together with children, still considering children’s safety?

79. How to make physical activity more harmonious in day care?

In general, physical activity seems to create disturbances in the educational setting, with the educators and even among peers. Physical activity is not favored in day care even though children move too little. However, a harmonious learning environment has more physical activities: There are more physical activity and the children are more physically active. There can be three reasons for this connection. In a in a harmonious learning environment: 1) Children can move more freely which helps children to let off steam, 2) A harmonious environment is more tolerant to physical activities and 3) In a harmonious environment the activities welcome movement. For example, in a football field there is rarely too much physical activity. Physical activity should be a welcomed necessity, not a constant source of conflicts.

80. How to help children with difficulties with gross motor development to move more?

It seems that especially children who have difficulties with physical activity get the least of it. Children in need of gross motor support move less than other children. These children get less practice. This tendency is likely to increase the differences between children. Less physically able children do not get practice to learn needed skills. These children need more possibilities to enhance their skills, more encouragement, support and activities that support the basic skills. Children cannot advance to higher levels if the foundation is not solid.

81. How to activate young children in outdoors during winter months in Finland?

Young children move less during winter months than other children. One explanation is probably clothing. However, children’s possibilities to move may be restricted by the environment. Young children cannot climb, swing or play winter games during winter months. The yard is frozen and makes it impossible to play with sand. How to prevent young children to look like Michelin men with nothing to do?

82. How to consider weather in basic care in Finland with small children?

Children spend twice as much time in basic care in March than in May in Finland. In March there is less time for unhurried fumbling with the buttons than in the summer, when there is more time to learn the skills of buttoning up and down in peace. There is extra time also when the snow is dry. Each month has its special requirements for basic care. Make a year-plan for basic care considering both the resources and children’s needs.

83. How to consider weather in basic care in Finland with older children?

For children to master basic care situations autonomously and considering the weather is not a simple task. The example of supported play could be applied here also. Children should have the process of preparing for outdoors in their minds even before they start to dress up to be able to steer themselves in a considerate way. The case of stressful protective clothing could be anticipated and processed with children. Make a year-plan for basic care considering the resources and children’s meta-cognitive skills of basic care.

84. How to make the basic care situation after lunch more relaxing?

After lunch is the peak hour of basic care activities. At the same time children are tired and their involvement is as its lowest. At the same time, the activities should be done more according to the general frame of activities, which means that children need to adapt more. The result is that on average at least one child in the group is doing something forbidden. After lunch time it is not a good time for strict rules, teaching, learning or compulsive tasks, because tired children get easily distracted. How to help children unwind?

85. How to sharpen up the educators’ roles in basic care for small children?

Educators’ different roles in basic care seem not to make any difference in children’s behavior or learning, at least in Finland. This means that the educators do not always act in a way that considers children’s vigilance, skills and situation. For example, educators should be more supporting for children’s own processes when children are at their brightest. When children are tired children need help to complete the necessary tasks and teaching should be avoided. Early childhood educator needs to consider what kind of activities help children to relax and which activities help children to pay attention. Make a list of different situations during the day and describe how children’s vigilance, mood and meta-cognition should be considered.

86. How to increase young children’s involvement in basic care activities?

Young children that should be most involved with the basic care tasks are the least involved with these tasks. This prohibits children learning the tasks and inhibits children from acquiring independence and from directing their activities during basic care. Young children need a wholesome attachment to the task with a combination of talk, practice, using senses, music and play to get involved. Very young children are not interested in the objectives of the task, which makes it necessary that the task itself captivates children’s mind with the help of wholesome approach. The educator should resist the temptation to do the task for the child whenever the resources allow for processing the task. Educators should leave room for child participation whenever possible. Involvement is important for learning. How to engage children into activities they cannot yet master and maybe even understand well?

87. Are there possibilities to make basic care situations more pleasant and interesting?

Ten percent of children spend in basic care more than one quarter of their time. Basic care is not just a transitive activity or an unavoidable chore. For the children who spending a lot of time in basic care it includes a lot of difficulties and other aspects of personal life too. The value of basic care should be strengthened, the human and inspirational aspects of life should be included in the activities and learning environment should be pleasant and well planned. Play and arts can support wholesome basic care. How to raise basic care as the essence of early childhood education where the important things happen?

88. How to include teaching in basic care?

Some basic care tasks are suitable for teaching. The clothing needs quite uniform and specific skills that could be taught to children. Children’s hygiene has a lot of universal content to be assimilated, which makes it suitable for teaching. Children’s anatomy and bodily functions have a lot general content that all of the children should adopt. The optimal time for teaching would be around 10 o’clock. The possibilities of teaching during basic care should be considered more fully.

89. Would it be worthwhile to apply the more loose and relaxed frame of basic care activities of the morning also after lunch?

In the morning the basic care activities include also other activities more than after lunch. Basic care in the morning is more social. Children attend more toward others and also the adult attends more towards children. Are there any practices that could be adapted from morning to noon activities? After the lunch the loose frame could be better for easily distracted children. Could the time after lunch be more home-like and less factory-like?

90. What things should be routine and automatic in basic care?

When children are tired it is difficult to navigate through complicated sea of possibilities and it is difficult for children to govern their choices. The routine tasks and automation are valuable qualities of action worth utilizing during low engagement. Not all activity calls for participation, creativity and processing. What things could be self-evident, not needing intellectual or emotional involvement during basic care? The routine tasks can help children to prepare for the next activity. For the routine to develop the basic care should be similar from day to day, happening in the same order with similar tasks. It is important to differentiate (both for educators and children) between tasks needing personal involvement and self-explanatory stock-in-trade. Routine leaves room for children to steer their emotional, motivational and intellectual activity according to the next activity.

91. How to decrease the time spent on waiting in day care centers?

The children with childminders spend their time acting according to the eating frame. Children in day care centers spend in eating sessions twice as much time than children with childminders. How to minimize the other activities before, during and after eating?

92. How to decrease the disturbances caused by distractions during breakfast and lunch?

In day care centers there seems to be more disturbances and distractions than with childminders. How to make an environment that has the non-destructive character of childminders? With the childminders the eating activities happen within the general frame. The general frame includes educator’s open-ended interaction. How to make eating situations more open and still less distracting?

93. How to make eating situations more socially engaging?

In Finland hanging about together with others is the most involved activity. When children’s attention wanders to the situation as a whole their involvement drop and the children get more vulnerable for distractions. Adding more social content to the eating situation would also add up to the educational value of eating situations.

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94. Is there something in the childminders way or conducting eating situations that could be adopted by the day care center educators?

The smaller scale, open, effective and social eating environment with childminders seem to have positive aspects. Would it be possible to adopt those qualities in day care centers also? What could it mean in practice? Should the children eat in different places? Should the educators’ concentrate for different smaller groups each? Should the children eat at different times? If eating in a smaller group takes less than half of the time of eating in a big group it would be worthwhile to try.

95. How to increase the amount of open interaction between adults and children during eating situation in day care centers?

An educator with open-ended interaction sets the mood ideal for socially meaningful and smooth eating situation. By participating in the social processes of one table the teacher can put more influence on the processes steering the eating situations and not just the rules.

96. How to help children to become more active and participative during eating situations?

The health regulation are getting more and more restrictive during eating situations making it difficult for children to participate in the preparation, helping, serving, collecting, cleaning and taking care of the tableware. The participation would nevertheless help children to get engaged with the important qualities of food and eating. Is there a way to get everybody drawn into a shared eating process and not compromise with hygiene?

97. How could we decrease the disturbances affecting children’s attention in large day care centers?

In large day care centers (87-120 children) children attended to the whole situation 32% of the time and in smaller day care centers (20-86 children) only 21.1% of the time. This means that in large day care centers children’s attention is more diffused in large day care centers. This may make children’s concentration more difficult in large day care centers. This diffusion is reflected in children’s involvement which is greater in small day care centers(M = 3.06) than in larger day care centers (M = 2.97). How to help children to get more focused in large day care centers?

98. How to increase the possibilities for the educators for more open interaction in large day care centers?

In small day care centers educators speng more time in open interaction with children (18.8% of the time) than educators in large day care centers (16.0%). In large day care centers the adults spent more time in organizing without child contact (13.7%) than educators in small day care centers (12.1%). Organizing and teaching takes more time. How to decrease the resources spent for large scale processes and invest it back to interaction with children?

99. How to prevent children’s personal qualities to get lost in larger day care centers?

We compared children’s skills and personal qualities in all day care centers. Is small day care centers the differences between children were greater than in larger day care centers. Furthermore, in small day care centers both children’s skills and problems were evaluated to be greater. These results cannot be based on real differences between children. For some reason the differences between children seem to be more easy to track down. It is good that children’s specific differences stand out.

100. How could we decrease the differences between small and large day care centers?

According to the learning environment evaluation the differences between small day care centers are greater than in large day care centers. Small day care centers seem to be more defenseless against disturbances. Especially defenseless small day care centers are in staff changes, pedagogic leadership and the quality of outdoor facilities. On the other hand, in small day care centers the atmosphere is often more creative, both when considered the activities of the educators and children. How to increase stability in small day care centers? How to increase creativity and togetherness in large day care centers?

101. How to increase the possibilities to participate in large day care centers?

In small day care centers children saw themselves participating in the presented situations in 37.4% of the answers. In larger day care centers children saw themselves participating only in 33.7% of the answers. Children in small day care centers get more practice to interact and work with social change than children in large day care centers.

102. How to help children to get more focused in eating situations?

Especially in Finnish day care center there is a lot of unfocused action, waiting, observing and searching. Participation and autonomous, self-directive action seems to be a good way to get children more focused. How could children participate in the planning, structure, content and different themes of eating?

103. How to help children in getting more focused in basic care situations?

Especially Taiwan seems to have a lot of action that has no clear focus during basic care. Are there ways to eliminate waiting and idle orientation during transition?

104. How to help children in getting more focused during free play with childminders?

Children with childminders do not generally act overtly unfocused. However, for some reason free play has more in-attentive behavior than other behavior. Maybe children’s self-directive skills have not developed because of the near and scaffolded relations between the child and the childminder? How to help children focus also during free play? How to strengthen children’s peer relations and independence during free play?

105. How should the educators act with children who have problems relating to others and focusing on activities?

As the results show, children who tend to wander around, observe others, wait or seek for something to get involved with have troubles in creative play and the children are more withdrawn. The children seem to be more dependent on the adult. Is there a contradiction? Is the attention of the adult solving the problem, when the child has problems connecting with other children?

106. How to help children to strengthen their peer relations?

There seems to be a vicious circle. Children who have fewer skills to connect to others seem to get less practice in connecting. Children with weaker contacts had those weaker contacts with similar children. It means that children who have sound contacts with others get even better and children who wander around and are not able to connect with others do not get practice in participating. How to involve children with weak connections in stronger peer contacts?

107. How to give children with uncertain interaction strategies more tools for interaction?

Unfocused children have uncertain strategies in daily controversial situations. The children do not know what to do when there is an open situation waiting for some action. The children do not see any solutions for the situations. How to help children build strategies for using in interaction with others?

108. How to help unfocused children to become more self-directive?

It is more difficult for some children to get involved in self-directed play. Children need practice in working with their peers and in development of the social order of their group. Children need practice in different roles in their peer relations. Children need adaptive, agentive, accommodative and self-centered strategies as tools in different situations. How could children get a hold of these tools?

109. How to give children enough time and space to hang around with others in educationally effective and busy learning environment?

Education and children’s hanging about together does not seem to belong together. Aimless open interaction seems to be rarer in participative educational environment. However, hanging about with others has its upsides: it gives children the opportunity to open up, process and share their thoughts in a relaxed atmosphere. For example basic care situations (especially at noontime) could be directed towards more open and self-directed group processes. For this to happen, the content of regulating rules needs to be replaced by autonomous group dynamics. Different intensity levels bring forward different aspects of the situations and children. When could the group unwind and open up to each other? How can this be done?

110. How to increase the value of discussions during eating situations?

Children do not hang about together much during eating and chatting with others as the main activity during eating is quite rare. However, eating situation with their loose atmosphere and children sitting together at the table is a good situation for group discussions. For the eating situation to be a group activity with open and shared ideas, the eating process needs to be regulated by the participants and children’s point of view needs to be acknowledged. How to help children in conducting an autonomous and shared eating sessions? What would engage children in opening up and sharing their thoughts? How could the eating situation be guided by topics relating to food and tastes, rather than concentrating on fitting into the general frame which is the main activity now?

111. How to increase physical activity during morning meetings?

Children can spend a long time outdoors chatting at the climbing frame and the physical activity does not inhibit their participation the least, on the contrary, it helps children to keep together in the loose atmosphere. How could morning meeting be held in physically activating ways making it possible for children to open up, share their thoughts and consider others in a similar way? How to change educators’ task of keeping children in their benches into children having to labor to maintain a satisfactory place during morning meetings?

112. How to help children to consider others more openly and learn to share their thoughts?

Children with meta-cognitive skills tend to hang together with others more. Thus the self-directive children get even more practice in considering the changing aspects of the group dynamics and steering the social direction of the events. How to engage also children with less experience to consider others in self-directing group situations? Without educators help these children might not get practice in sharing their thoughts.

113. How to increase physical activity in the play with materials during free play indoors?

Children’s physical activity is way too low in day care and the physical activity of material play drops dramatically when children come from outdoors to indoors. How to make material play indoors more physically demanding? Are there ways to make the indoor space more movement friendly? What kind of activities, materials and toys would evoke more physical activity? Experiment with different activities.

114. What kind of toys, materials and activities would evoke deeper learning processes in children under 3-year-olds?

Young children are concrete and play a lot with toys and materials. Still their involvement is quite low. How could the educator help the child to get engrossed about what they are doing? What kind of environment is best for continuing play? How could other children increase engagement in the activity? Even young children need to have a sense that toy play is not just manipulation of objects; the content of the play needs to evolve during the course of playing.

115. How to deepen material play with 6-year-old children?

Children’s involvement in material play tends to decrease when they reach the ages of six and seven. The older children need enough challenge and possibilities to develop their material play. How to enrich older children’s material play and keep it interesting? Experiment with different motivations, processes and activities.

116. How to include effort and feeling of success into material play?

Children who excel and are successful in their efforts do not belong to the learning environment with a lot of material play. Children’s encouragement is not emphasized in these groups. Too often the material play just starts and ends with no special feelings of charged tension resulting in triumphal success. Children playing with legos just seem to get quite but not very involved in their play. Playing with legos rarely raises excitement or enthusiastic euphoria. How to deepen the process with material manipulation? Try to give examples. Because material play is children’s main activity in day care, a small increase in involvement would make a huge impact in general.

117. How to use role and imaginary play in direct education?

Role playing or imaginary play is almost non-existent in the daily direct education sessions in Finnish day care centers. How to apply more imaginative roles in teaching? How to make the learning materials to become alive, socially constructed and motivated? The numbers, letters, physical laws, nature and historical events can all have personal qualities. By using motifs in processing systems children can more easily make sense of the dynamics of the situation. How to make the learning content more personal and dramatic?

118. How to add more scaffolding in the role and imaginary play?

There are very few cases of scaffolded role or imaginary play in Finnish day care centers. The educator needs to be aware of what the children are up to, to understand what is important in children’s activities and enrich children’s play when needed. What would a plan for a scaffolded role or imaginary play look like?

119. How to take advantage in role and imaginary play during basic care?

There are basically two ways to use imagination during basic care. 1) Children can imagine themselves in different roles and activities doing motivated basic care and 2) children can imagine the clothes and tools of basic care having roles. How to make basic care situations more motivated, exciting and creative for a better and more effective basic care? How to use roles in learning the different tasks needed in basic care? How to use roles to help children master their tasks more autonomously? How the roles could help children to self-direct their basic care chores?

120. How to apply role and imaginary play in eating situations?

Using role or imaginative play is almost non-existent during eating situations. How to change eating situations into dramas with celebrations, packed lunches, excursions, different roles and cultures? In different roles children could participate in the regulation of the eating situation both on personal level and on group level. What kind of situations and roles would help the eating situation to become a collectively designed process?

121. Should the roles of educators in Finnish day care centers during outdoor free play be reconsidered?

Children play a lot of role play or imaginary play during free outdoor play, but the educators are far away and do not attend to those situations at least in Finnish day care centers. The good thing is that children have the possibility to play their creative plays without adult interfering. The downside is that the educator is not aware of children’s processes and the inner life and needs of the children remain unknown. Moreover, children that can not get role play started or can not maintain it do not get help. Children that are happily playing creative role play do not need additional help.

122. Would it be possible for the educator to acquire more versatile roles in day care?

A motivated and dynamic image helps children to integrate the action into their personal point of view. Early childhood educators can use different roles consciously to create certain moods, to get the message through and to give perspective to an issue. Give examples of different roles and situations to inspire more versatile educator roles in day care.

123. How to enhance children’s participation in the role creation and theme building in the group?

In role play children use and develop their own schema to create new social systems. Different children’s roles can be used consciously to help children in their participation. Children can be directors, guides, teachers, nurses, polices or movie stars. A role helps children to try new things, for example, a wounded animal can let others to comfort and come close. Different roles give children perspective and help them to find new qualities in themselves. What kind of themes would make it possible for children to participate in the theme and role production on a group level? Give an example.

124. How to protect children’s privacy in their rich role and imaginary play?

The results show that children’s role play is best alive and kicking in private hideaways. This precious quality should be maintained. There is no need of adult intervening when things develop well. Children need secluded places and enough time for their plays to develop. How to do this concretely in the busy and crowded everyday?

125. How to help the educators to get a better contact to children’s imagination?

The children can only interact with things that they can perceive. Moreover, children can perceive only things that they can imagine; otherwise the things are just senseless stimulus or noise. To get in contact with children’s imagination is to get in contact with children’s tools of producing their life. If adult and children con meet within a shared view, the adult gets in contact with children’s inner life. With entangled and multifaceted role play the adult can contact the child as deep as possible. How can this be acquired? Give an example.

126. What skills does the educator need to participate in children’s role play?

To play role play is not teaching and it is not care. The educator needs to be open to children’s ideas and ready to do a constructive input in the shared process. The educator needs to prepare for surprises, alternatives and dead ends. The teacher needs to be ready to throw away the ready-made objectives, as any of the children’s initiative might be an enriching new development making it possible for the teacher to get in contact with even the most fundamental and basic driving forces of children’s life. What kind of preparation, attitude or situation would help the adult to meet children in a common process? Try to give examples.

127. How to work with children’s social strategies during role of imaginary play?

Children can use only those schema in their role play they can have a connection to or they can create (cf. Reunamo, 2007b) . Children who are used to role play have strong images that they defend if necessary. Nevertheless, even children who are not equipped with forceful strategies use those strategies they have in their toolbox. With role play these tools can be exposed, developed and tested in different situations. The teacher can confront children with different tensions and enrich their toolbox. Try to give practical examples of role play situations, in which children have to create alternative paths to advance.

128. How to help children who do not play role or imaginative play to get started in the play?

Withdrawn children may have a rich imaginative mind just waiting to be exposed and blossomed. Dominating children with their determined minds can open up their strategies in creative situations. Adapting children with their consideration for others are easily drawn into processes with others. Some children need educator’s help in getting friends to play, getting their imagination flowing or to share their ideas .Children with not so definitive driving ideas need more refined help in realizing their ideas. Give examples of motivation and nourishment.

129. How to help children who have difficulty in sustaining role or imaginary play to get more engaged in the play?

Sometimes it is not enough that children are given an undisturbed place for role play. Some children get frustrated easily if the play does not advance. Some children need several experiences of successful imaginary processes to keep on giving effort to the development of the play. Role play needs determination and the possibility to prevent impacts from the environment. Role playing can be learned. How can the educator help in this learning? Give examples.

130. How to help less popular children to get skills to enhance social processes among peers?

Children who cannot create and sustain engaging and creative plays are less popular and have less friends. There is a danger of a vicious circle: Popular children get even better in their skills. Children with less skills and determination get no practice in building socially interesting constructs. The less popular children need educator’s help to get involved and acquire valuable experiences of supplying content to a shared cultural development. True and sustaining self-esteem is build on the fact that one can feel to be a contributing member of the group. How can this be done in? Give concrete examples.

131. How to involve children under 5 in role and imaginary play?

Children under 5 are less involved in role and imaginary play, probably because developmental reasons. Younger children probably need help in getting involved in the play. What kind of things, activities, properties and toys would keep young children involved in role play. Describe examples.

132. How to involve children over 5 more in drama play?

Children over 5 seem to lose some of the intensity of role or imaginary play as they grow older. The educator could provide children with new ways to play, for example in different kinds of drama play. Older children can also perhaps give way to considering others’ feelings also during the drama and the play could be a more conscious way to build a shared presentation. Children with less practice with expressing their ideas can perhaps get more room for their less robust ideas in a group of older children and get bolder.

133. What would make the reading sessions in direct education less adult centered?

When educator is reading for the children, the children attend to the educator, which is a mainly a good thing. However, to get children ideas into the reading process and to be able to work them together with children is to let children have an impact on the content of the reading. To help children relate their own ideas to the story the teacher needs to help children to mix their ideas with the content of the book. How to help the group in creating the reading a group process? Give examples.

134. How to increase physical activity during reading sessions?

Reading sessions, both teacher directed but also children’s own reading were clearly the physically lowest activity of all children’s activities. How to add up to the mood, content and impact of the story with energetic movement? A quiet atmosphere is usually valued when children read their books during transition. Is there a way to re-think this? Try to give some novel ideas never tested before.

135. How to get personal flavor to children’s reading?

Children’s skills or personal qualities evaluated by the educators did not relate with children’s reading in any way. This means also that children’s interest, needs do not have an effect on the reading sessions. It means that reading sessions are not interactive. Children’s personal relation to books does not show. How to change this?

136. How to connect reading with participative pedagogic?

More reading seems to relate mainly to the habit of reading for children during morning meetings or transition situation. They are not connected with the big ideas of meaningful pedagogy, learning or aware processing of children’s ideas. How to integrate books and reading into the whole?

137. How to make daily reading session into daily drama or performances?

Daily reading sessions give children the possibility to relate their imagination and interests with familiar and new stories. However, with the practice of creating a habit of daily drama or performance related to the book would help in getting children’s ideas in the open, strengthen children’s ideas and make it possible to process these ideas together with others. The session could be a deeply connected personal process. How to introduce drama or performance and make it a same kind of daily habit that reading is?

138. Should we rethink reading in transition situations?

Reading books when children wait for the next activity is a good habit. When children get used to take books when there is no clear direction for the activities gives children something interesting they can engage them with. It is not good if children get very involved in the transition activities. It would make it difficult for children to stop their action and move on. Are children reading sessions doomed to be just a light snack among more important activities?

139. How to increase the amount of rule play in the group?

Rule playing is played only 3.4 % of the time. However, it has great value as getting children involved both physically and mentally. Rule play is an intense and engaging activity that has great potential. How to make rule play more popular in the group? Give positive examples.

140. How to increase children’s rule play outdoors?

Children are way too passive in day care. Rule play is the best physical activator of all activities in the outdoors. Still rule play is played outdoors only for 4.3 % of the time. A playground that encourages many kinds of activities increases children’s rule playing outdoors. How to arrange good places for physically active games? What equipment is needed?

141. How to increase rule playing during direct education?

Rule playing is a great motivator for processing things, because it engages children deeply. However, sheer competition is empty. In learning games children struggle to solve problems on their own and together with others. The engaging tension needs to be changed from competing against each other to succeeding together. Give working examples.

142. How could educators scaffold children’s rule play?

Children are very active both physically and mentally (at least in Finland) during scaffolded rule play outdoors. However, scaffolded play outdoors is very rare, only about 1 % of all outdoor activity. How can educators enhance children ‘s game culture?

143. How to increase learning content in rule plays?

High involvement does not automatically mean meaningful learning. Children can time after time be excited about the throwing of the dice and the chance consequence it results and learn nothing from it. Or children can  get stuck in the same ritual playing with no new things to learn. For meaningful learning the play needs to have enough variety for different skill levels and curricular content for processing. What would be both engaging and educative rule plays? Give examples.

144. How to have more positive social content in rule plays?

Rule plays can be competitive, full of tension, struggle, defeats, envy and disappointments. If children can process these feelings in a constructive way, they can learn to deal with success and failure. Too often, as the preceding analysis show, rule play does not invoke good relations between children, even though these children attract each other. Intensive games result in battles and hostility. How should we consider the negative aspects of games and competition?

145. How to engage also small children in meaningful rule plays?

Small children play less rule plays and their development does not allow for complicated rule plays. However, rule plays engage also young children effectively. What kind of rule plays would be relevant for younger children?

146. How to deal with the controversies related to rule plays?

Rule play and games raise tensions and if the other tends to win the other tends to lose. What kind of games would make it possible for children to win as a team? The game would be about children against non-social obstacles or problems. In a play that is not a win or lose dichotomy, there may be several possible ways to win. How to make games more unifying and less dividing activities?

147. How to include games in the curriculum?

Rule plays and games seem to be difficult to relate with curricular subjects or content orientations. Games tend to relate to personal success, not learning content. Try to collect mathematical, knowledge related, ethical or esthetic games to include in the exited atmosphere of the game.

148. What to think of computer games?

Information technology is not used in day care and it is almost a taboo subject. However, digital media is more and more central to children’s daily life. Perhaps we should process digital media together with children and not to put our heads in the sand. How to make digital media and games an enriching and socially constructive way to work in day care?

149. What kind of work or tasks outdoors would be educationally enriching during outdoor activities?

Most of the tasks are done indoors, at the table and with pen and paper. Outdoors there would be more room to move and make noise during activities. How the quiet tasks during direct education could be transferred to outdoors? It could strengthen the content of the learning and the children could perhaps work with content in a more wholesome way.

150. What kind of work or tasks during basic care could help children in their self-directing of their tasks?

Children’s tasks were almost non-existent in basic care. In Taiwan children participate some in keeping track, maintenance and cleaning of the facilities and activities. Maintaining the facilities could help children to become more aware of the things needed for requirements of basic care and hygiene. Taking responsibility would help children to grow their togetherness and consideration for others, which are now aspects lacking in children’s task.

151. How to organize eating situations in such a way that children could themselves learn to direct their hygienic and healthy eating?

Children’s participation in assisting in the eating situations has dropped dramatically in recent years mainly because of hygienic requirements. However, because we now are better aware of the importance of hygiene, children’s participation in the activities may be regarded even more important. Children need to learn to act in healthy and hygienic way, not to be isolated. Children need to learn healthy habits, not to be kept away from resistance enhancing activities.

152. How to increase physical activity during tasks?

The majority of the tasks are done during direct education with very little physical activity. However, there is no rule saying that tasks for example done with paper and pen would be more effective that physically exerting work with large and heavy particles. How to enhance the effect of ideas with movement?

153. How to enhance child-to-child participation during tasks?

Children attend mostly toward non-social objects during tasks. The children do not do tasks together. However, doing for example preschool tasks together with others would help children to learn from each others. The tasks could form proximal zones of development, where children could learn from more skilful peers. Give examples of how e.g. preschool tasks can be changed from individual tasks to tasks done in pairs.

154. How to increase children’s togetherness with tasks?

If children do a lot of individual tasks during direct education and free play, it seems to make children’s togetherness and consideration for each other weaker. Doing individual tasks make children value their individual work and keep their important work to themselves. What would be tasks that would require an input from several children, tasks that would require considering each others’ input? Shared tasks would help children in learning teamwork and relieve the stress of personal failure.

155. What kind of work education would be relevant in modern day care center?

People’s work today keeps differentiating, requiring special skills and technological advancement. The skills to direct the evolving processes may be valuable skills even in the future. Participation in the maintenance and improvement in the multifaceted work of day care center would empower children, help them understand their part in the network of different roles and to acquire practical skills that help children in their life. If the children do not participate, they may not feel the requirements of keeping things flowing. How to keep the children in contact with the work done in day care center? Or work done outside the day care. What about the work of parents?

156. How to decrease forbidden action during basic care situations?

Forbidden action is concentrated on basic care situations. There are several ways to tackle the situation. Could the amount of forbidden things be decreased? Especially after lunch the amount of forbidden activities is high. How to make these situations less vulnerable for disturbances? Is it possible to give children who tend to do forbid things something more constructive to do? How to help children get a hold of their forbidden activities?

157. How to make physical activity more allowed in day care?

Higher physical activity is related to forbidden activities across all general activities. On the other hand, in free outdoor play there is less forbidden activities even though physical activity is high also in general. How to make room for more physical activity in day care? How to make it possible for children to move more freely without doing something forbidden? Perhaps we need to first consider how to make it possible for the children to move and then build our plans on that prerequisite.

158. How should the educators react to forbidden activities?

The adults tend to interact more with the children who do forbidden things and they have less time to observe children. In Finnish day care centers the educators have less time for teaching when something forbidden is done. Forbidden activities get twice as much attention than other activities. The increased attention and interactivity of the educator may result in a vicious circle. What else can the educators do to decrease forbidden activities than to dive into the situation and give it their attention?

159. How to consider the gender issue in forbidden activities`

Girls were observed to do a lot less forbidden things than boys. Or, at least we can say that boys’ forbidden are easier to define and observe. There is a need to look our presuppositions more closely. Is the day care activities build to suit better for girls’ activities? The boys have a reputation of behaving more badly than girls, how can this be changed? After all, most boys were not observed to do anything that was not allowed. Most of the educators in day care are female; does this have an effect on the observations of forbidden action? Is the tendency “bad behaving boys” having an effect on boys’ role in day care? How to help both girls and boys to process these things and find constructive solutions?

160. How to help children to get hold of their forbidden activities?

Forbidden activities are not well planned and purposive, but happen mostly in loose and uncontrolled situation with no clear focus. The children with troubles on getting hold of themselves find it hard to concentrate and act appropriately in new challenging situations. A new challenging situation teaches the child that he/she cannot cope in new challenging situations and children learn to be frustrated in them producing a vicious circle. How could the educators anticipate these situations and help children to learn to direct their activities in a more constructive ways? Give examples.

161. How to help children who do more forbidden activities to open up their strategies and ideas about situations?

Children who do more forbidden activities have less withdrawn and more closed strategies than other children. The children do not back up and they tend to concentrate on their own ideas. To be able to consider others’ point of view and obey rules they need to open up and not to react to everything. The children need to learn to process the controversies together with others. With their stubborn attitudes they cannot be flexible. Especially when children are excited and physically active their ideas do not allow flexibility. Both the processing of the forbidden activities and learning to open up call for peaceful and accepting atmosphere with a sense of success. In groups where there is less forbidden activity the controversies of the children are processed together with children. Give examples.

162. How to help children with more forbidden activities to learn to build processes together with others?

In groups where children do less forbidden things children participate more in the planning and development of the activities and processes are worked together with children. The educators need to consciously give children possibilities to participate in order to help them learn to participate. The difficult thing is that sometimes the group chemistry goes wrong and children tend to learn only to hang on like grim death onto their own point of way. Give examples of more positive development.

163. How to give way to a shared pedagogy?

In groups that the activities are directed along adults’ ideas children do not learn to direct their own ideas. The strict adult-planned activities do not also give room for children’s own ideas, resulting in conflicts with children with not-focused but closed ideas. Part of the activity time needs to be allowed to be spend in the shared processing of the activities will be evolving. Give concrete examples.

164. How to arrange for more peaceful learning environment with less disruptive behavior?

Small groups and differentiation seem to help to decrease forbidden activities. When children have more opportunities for self-directive autonomous play and there is possibility for long-lasting plays, children learn to process their closed ideas and develop them further. When there are enough relevant playing options, the playing materials are versatile and outdoors facilities are stimulating children have less need to do forbidden activities.

165. How to help children with less constructive strategies to more fruitful social relations?

Children who do more forbidden things have contacts that do not see themselves changing the situations and just seem to accept failure situations. The children do not learn agentive ways to change their situations from their peers. Children that do forbid deeds have peer contacts with less participation and dynamic views. Both partners in these situations are often children with special needs. How to break the spell of non-constructive and arid interaction?

166. How to help the children with forbidden activities to acquire a positive self-image?

Children that do more forbidden actions get more negative feedback and attention from the educators. These children are also unpopular among their peers. The children are stuck with their inflexible and not constructive images. Some children may grow a tendency to get attention by doing something not-allowed. These children need positive feedback of even small attempts of constructive deeds. Give examples of successes.

167. How to recognize girls with special needs better?

Girls with special needs get less attention from the educators and their orientation is more uncertain than boys’ orientation. The girls seem to be neglected. What is the reason for the indifference? The reason does not seem to be the difference in children’s skills and social tendencies as there were no statistically significant differences in them.

168. How to engage children with special needs in to the activities?

Children with special needs wander around more with no clear focus on their mind. These children cannot deepen their interaction in a sustaining way. Thus the children have fewer opportunities to learn things that affect deeper problems. The learning remains superficial. Deep engagement is a precondition for rehabilitation. The children cannot have deeply impacting changes in their needs if the processes do not affect the child as a whole. First children need to learn to get involved, then they can learn to develop in a wholesome way.

169. How to help children with special needs to view situations openly?

Children with special needs have more withdrawn, uncertain and dominant strategies. They do not evaluate the situations openly as much as other children. This means that the children do not find remedies for their problems as easily as other children, rather, they tend to stick to their own, perhaps not adequate, ideas. What would help children with special needs to openly process their own ideas and the environmental phenomenon?

170. How to stop the accumulation of problems of children with special needs?

Children with special needs have usually problems in several areas. These problems reverberate in their personality and in their social relations too. Children are not in balance with their accommodative and assimilative ideas, as they tend apply assimilative strategies. These children cannot participate in the process and practice their agency in a constructive way. To teach as much as possible for these children is not a path to balance. These children need to get a hold of their development. How to pin down the central problem of the child and help him/her to work on it as deeply as possible?

171. How to make the learning environment more sustaining for children with special needs?

The learning environment of the children with special is more short-paced and less peaceful. Children with special need seem to find each other. The staff does not get to concentrate on the long-lasting creative processes as much as with other children. The very children that need to apply their mind to a task in a more profound way, have less possibilities to do so. How to make the learning environment processes longer and deeper?

172. How to get children with special needs to get involved in scaffolded play in Finland?

Scaffolded play is the most efficient way to learn. Scaffolded play is also a good way to get in contact with children’s personal difficulties in the deepest level? Nevertheless, in Finland the power of scaffolded play is not utilized. In fact children with no special needs spent a little more time in scaffolded play. Early childhood educators need to learn to apply scaffolded play. They also need to remind them to apply that skill more fully. To have full effect scaffolded play needs enough time for deepening the process. How can we enrich and submerge ourselves in the play processes of children? Give examples.

173. How to help children with sensory disorders to engage themselves in the activities and with others?

Children with sensory difficulties have more loose relations with other children. These children do not get easily involved in the activities easily. The children do not get feedback on their actions and views as easily as other children. The children with sensory disorders are hard to contact. These children can’t stop their wandering around. What kind of things would help to get these children engaged in the processes with others?

174. How to prohibit ADHD children from having too much negative feedback?

Children with ADHD do five times as much prohibited action than other children. These children have difficulties in their skills. Children with ADHD are more often mentioned to be unwanted play friends. The children are not having more destructive ideas than other children, they just seem not to be capable of controlling their impulses, resulting their creative powers to turn in disruptive interaction and in unwanted status among peers. How to find a path for ADHD children that would lead to a more positive feedback?

175. How to help children with language difficulties enhance their interactive skills?

Children with language deficiencies are not as participative in activities as other children, they can’t cope appropriately in new situations and they are not as sensitive in their interaction. Children with language deficiencies do not just have problems with language, they are problems of communication. Children with language difficulties need to get into a more wholesome engagement with others, the concentration on language is not enough. A deep shared process for these children would be the best practice for communication skills. The children need to be motivated to express themselves and to recognize and identify their experiences. A dramatic play integrates children’s experiences and expressions. Give examples of situations where children with language difficulties have strongly motivated expressive situations.

176. How to help children with social and emotional difficulties to open up and adapt their views more?

Children with social and emotional disorders expressed more dominant views than other children. Holding tight with their problematic feelings and relations prohibits them from accommodating their views for better balance. The more problematic the situation, the tighter the children cling to their problems. These children do not really see agency; they look at their own troubled mind. How to help these children to safely open their ideas for wholesome emotional and social processes? How to help these children to process for example Lela-story openly?

177. Childminders: How to document the activities?

Documenting can be a good way to process and plan the activities with children. Documenting is also a good way for childminders, parents and children alike to evaluate the activities. Videoing plays and drama, making movies and documentaries of the processes help to capture the important moments for evaluation and future planning. Make a year-plan for documentation that is not just capturing but also producing content.

178. Childminders: Planning for the individual child

Childminding is a good place for individual care and education. It is a perfect place for individual planning also. Planning for individual child does not necessarily mean that the childminder should plan what the child should do or what the childminder does for the child. Participative planning is like preparing to meet the child with a bag of possibilities ready. Try to plan a river plan for individual children.

179. Childminders: Integrating music in the activities

Music seems to be related in many good things in learning environment. The childminder does not have to be a music maestro to include melody, rhythm, different moods and cultures in the activities and play. How can we get a more full-bodied experiences for listening, participating and creating?

180. Childminders: How to get children involved in wholesome visual expression?

Children should have both the needed tools available and a committed educator introducing the possibilities of visual creation. Visual expression  can include several medias, all senses and different processes for creation. How to get both the childminder and children more interested?

181. Childminders: How to nourish drama play?

Drama was the evaluated the second least practiced activity with childminders. However, if the child gets engrossed in a deep drama with others, the child is ready to process matters well beyond his/her capacity. Use Lela-story (Reunamo, 2005b) as a tool. Use materials mentioned in the story. You can use puppets. Take yourself a role. Practice dramatization with other childminders.

182. Childminders:  What would be a healthy information technology like in early childhood education?

Information technology cannot replace or substitute the childminder, but it can open new possibilities in generating learning content. Compare ideas with other childminders to identify good and bad practices. Describe a successful IT project with children.

183. How to use IT in documenting?

184. The possibilities of IT in partnership with parents?

185. The possibilities of IT in increasing creativity?

186. The possibilities of IT in special pedagogy?

187. The possibilities of IT in cooperation of the staff.

188. The possibilities of IT in learning to read and write.

189. The possibilites of IT in visual arts

190. The possibilities if IT in music education

191. The possibilities of mobile phones in ECEC

192. The possibilities of camera in ECEC

193. The possibilities of scanner in ECEC

194. The possibilitie of IT in preparing portfolios

195. The possibilities of IT in drama education

196. The possibilities of IT in children’s social development

197. The possibilities of IT in observation an evaluation

198. The possibilities and threats of IT in children’s motoric development

199. How to eliminate the threats of IT in ECEC?

200. The threats of IT for children’s development?

201. What would the future IT-pedagogy be like?

202. How the strong emotions exposed in play are brought in the open and processed with children?

Both the popular and unpopular children play more role plays than other children. Children that have less contacts with other children play less role plays than other children. Role play includes strong emotions and processes. How to confront them?

203. How to help children to consider and accept others more easily?

Children that gave most accommodative and open strategies in interview were the most popular playmates among their peers. The contacts were also more positive and richer. Try the Lela-story to increase awareness and to get perspective on different strategies to deal with different situations. The story can be retrieved at http://www.helsinki.fi/~reunamo/article/lv.pdf.

204. How to increase children’s participative perception?

Altogether 34% of the children’s answers were participative. Popular children gave more participative strategies especially in situations when others were quarreling. Popular children were also more interactive in teasing situations. Participative perception increases children peer contacts and children can enhance their skills further. . Try the Lela-story to increase awareness and to get perspective on different strategies to deal with different situations. The story can be retrieved at http://www.helsinki.fi/~reunamo/article/lv.pdf.

205. How to consider children’s dominant perception in ECEC?

12% of children’s answers were classified as dominant. Children who had more dominant strategies were less popular and they were also mentioned more often as unwanted playmates. . Try the Lela-story to increase awareness and to get perspective on different strategies to deal with different situations. The story can be retrieved at http://www.helsinki.fi/~reunamo/article/lv.pdf.

206. How to consider children’s withdrawn perception?

There were only 12% of withdrawn answers in children’s descriptions. Withdrawn children were mentioned less often as wanted playmates but they were also mentioned less often as not wanted playmates. Withdrawn children were invisible with no strong feeling among children. The difficult thing is that withdrawn children have less child contacts which mean they have less possibilities to practice their interactive skills. This make these children vulnerable to exclusion. Try the Lela-story to increase awareness and to get perspective on different strategies to deal with different situations. The story can be retrieved at http://www.helsinki.fi/~reunamo/article/lv.pdf.

207. How to consider children’s uncertainty in ECEC?

Altogether there were 14% of children’s answers that could not be classified as accommodative, participative, dominant or withdrawn.  Uncertain children were the most excluded children in their peer relations, even more than withdrawn children. Uncertain children do not have the tools for interaction and they do not get practice in acquiring them. Try the Lela-story to increase awareness and to get perspective on different strategies to deal with different situations. The story can be retrieved at http://www.helsinki.fi/~reunamo/article/lv.pdf.

208. How to consider unpopular children?

Unpopular children do not have the needed skills to consider their or others’ feelings. Their strategies are more rigid and social skills underdeveloped. The unpopular children’s peer contacts have more agentive strategies. Probably the challenging children need more  agentive strategies from their peers which is a good advice also for the EC educator. . Try the Lela-story to increase awareness and to get perspective on different strategies to deal with different situations. The story can be retrieved at http://www.helsinki.fi/~reunamo/article/lv.pdf.

209. How to help children in getting started with role play?

Withdrawn children play less role play than other children. However, role play is a good way to practice building social relations and shared cultural content. Withdrawn children are more dependent on adults and less oriented towards other children. What withdrawn children really need is a shared social path built with other children. Withdrawn children do not have the needed vision or orientation. How to give these children more inner motivation and visions for interaction? Give examples.

210. How to help children to be more active in rule playing?

In rule play there is a ready-made construction for a shared activity. In rule play there is a motive for the activity and often a need to succeed and do your best. Rule play could help withdrawn children to build stronger motives or clearer ideas in their activities. They could learn to meet other children in a common ground built together. How to help withdrawn children to start building for the future?

211. How to help withdrawn children to see and process the path ahead?

It is very clear that withdrawn children do not choose to withdraw. Their headlights for the future just are not bright enough. The children do not see what is going to happen, which makes it hard for them to participate in constructive content production with others. These children cannot see the strategies other children see. How to help children to build motives for action for themselves and others? Give examples.

212. How to help children to process their controversies and examine them together with other children?

Children need practice in processing their controversies. A learning environment where children work on their problems together has less withdrawn qualities in children. To build a learning environment where children work together to solve real life problems is really pedagogy where children produce the learning content. A real life problem is an opportunity that is not planned ahead by the educator. How can the educators plan to work in these situations if the content cannot be defined in advance? Try different planning models for future anticipation.

213. How to increase children’s impact on the production of social and play groups?

When children participate in the building of the social structures, they see their ideas to become flesh and they can work on them further. If children can participate in the division and role building of the social sphere, children’s ideas are integrated with the learning environment. The more the learning environment is built by children’s own motives and visions, the more the adults can work and process them with children (cf. Reunamo and Nurmilaakso, 2007). Both educators and children get a better contact with their motives. The tighter children’s motives are baked within the learning environment the less is the danger of children having too weak contacts with others. How to help children’s ideas to become the main ingredients in the learning environment? Give examples.

214. How to help children in their identity construction?

When children have unsure visions about their identity they cannot mirror themselves in relation to others and the feedback is blurred. To build their identity children need to recognize their motives and build them with others. The more the learning environment can be built on children’s aspirations the better. We do not need to reach for outside objectives or content when we have the most important content for learning already present in children’s views. To help children to build their identity we need to have the ingredients out in the open. How to build a learning environment where children can have a real feeling of contributing their ideas?

215. How to help children to participate when they start day care?

Children who have been a shorter time in day care are more withdrawn. How to help newcomers to integrate their ideas within the learning environment with others? Newcomers need help in building their personal path in day care in such a way that it is connected with others’ paths. The children need both to get a feel of other children’s ideas and to get other children get a feel of their ideas. The educators perhaps need to help newcomers to produce extra input for others to get acquainted with. How can this be done? Give ideas for participative start-up.

216. How to help children crawl out of withdrawnness?

Withdrawn children tend to relate to children who have similar problems. This results in weaker integrative processes for children. The children have difficulties in coping in challenging situations. The children cannot learn these skills from each other because they don’t get alternative strategies. Basically, these children do not need educators to help them to avoid problems, they need educators to help them to tackle them with others. How can this be done? Give examples.

217. How to help children to deepen their relationships?

Withdrawn children do not have as many friends as other children. On the other hand, they do not have as much enemies either. The peer contacts are just more shallow and less frequent.. For deeper relations the children need to have strong motives that do get worked on by others (cf. Reunamo 2004). Children need to feel that they have something important in their life. The important things need to be connected with others too. How can children be introduced to be hungry for contribution? How to start an intensive project in which children can value their impact? .Give examples.