Friendship formation in inclusive early childhood classrooms: what is the teacher's role?

This study examined strategies teachers reported using to support friendships among young children in inclusive early childhood classrooms. The teachers included 25 general early childhood educators from 9 child care centers and 20 early childhood special educators from 9 specialized programs. The Playmates and Friends Questionnaire for Teachers documented the number and nature of children's friendships and teachers' reported use of I I different strategies to support individual friendships. Overall, the friendship strategies that teachers reported using most frequently included providing sufficient free choice time, allowing, children to form their own friendships, and commenting on the play between friends. The majority of teachers reported rarely using two strategies: arranging for children to play together outside of the classroom and allowing two friends to exclude other children from their play. Teachers reported using more active friendship strategies to support dyads in which one or both children had special needs. Implications of these findings to support friendship formation in inclusive early childhood settings and directions for future research are presented. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.