Building Relationships With Children In The Classroom

For children in preschool, especially an all day preschool, the relationships they build with their teachers are really important.  These relationships tend to directly reflect on the quality of the childcare program because these teachers are such a large part of the child's day to day life.  In building relationships with children there are a few questions teachers can answer to see if they are doing all they can to support the children in their classroom.

•  How frequently do children interact with teachers?
• This questions points out the importance of low student to teacher ratios, because children need to have interactions with their teachers to build relationships.  It is also important to keep in mind just being in close proximity to the children isn't enough, the teacher needs to interact with them.  Studies have shown most teachers do interact with children a majority of the time they are in the classroom, however because of student to teacher ratios the amount of interaction a child has with a teacher is low.
• What kinds of interactions are happening with the children?
• Teachers need to be willing to take a role in their interactions with children, they need to be willing to play with the children in their classroom.  Teachers also need to be encouraging the children in their classroom to explore the world around them.
• Teachers need to be sensitive to the children in their classroom, and respond to their needs in a warm, nurturing, responsive way.  This includes understanding and knowing what kind of interactions work best with the different children in their classroom.
• Teachers need to be warm and responsive to the children in their room, and be engaged with the children in the classroom.  This includes having a conversation or joining in their play.
• When teachers talk with the children in their classroom it is important they have more positive interactions then negative interactions.  Also teachers need to talk to children not just as a group, but as individuals.
• What influences these interactions?
• Both the child and the teacher's temperament is a factor on interactions and relationships, and how strong the relationship is.
• As much as we don't want to think the child's background influences the was the relationship between the teacher and the child, it does.  Studies have found race, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status all contribute to the teacher child relationship. 
• The teacher's level of education is an important factor in how they interact with the child.  Studies have shown teachers with higher levels of education tend to have more warm and nurturing interactions with the children in their classroom.
• As we talked about earlier, class size has a huge impact on the interactions between teachers and students.  When the ratio of students to teachers is low, the teacher has an easier time interacting positively with all the children in the classroom on an individual basis.
• How do the interactions influence development?
• Children who recive responcive care have better developmental outcomes regarding, social, emotional, language and cognitive devleopment.  In these cases both the quantity and quality of the interacts are important.
• Social:  The way teachers act toward the children in the room model the way children act toward other children in the room.  Children learn how to treat others by example.
• Emotional:  Having a responsive teacher helps children cope with stresses in the classroom, and tend to have more positive emotional experiences in the classroom.
• Language:  Several studies have shown that children who experience more positive interactions with teachers have higher language development then those who don't.
• Cognitive:  Studies done on teacher-child interactions have shown that children who have positive inteactions with their teachers do better on cognitive tasks then those children who don't.  

In order to improve the child's outcome the teacher needs to remember to be warm and responsive and have individual interactions with the children in the classroom.  Child care centers need to keep in mind the importace of low student to teacher ratios in order for their teachers to have high quality interactions with the children in their classrooms, thus building a stronger program.

Source:
Kontos, S., & Wilcox-Herzog, A. (1997). Teachers' interactions with children: why are they so important?. Young Children, 4-12.