Att genom lek stödja och stimulera barns sociala förmågor – undervisning i förskolan

This systematic overview of knowledge gathers research that can increase kindergarten teachers’ understanding of how they can support and stimulate children’s social skills through play.

The aim of the overview is to answer the following questions:

• In what ways do kindergarten teachers support and stimulate children’s social skills through play?
• What characterises kindergarten teachers’ actions that support and stimulate children’s social skills through play?

The studies describe a number of actions that kindergarten teachers perform to support and stimulate children’s social skills through play. Among the studies are examples of play initiated by the adults or the children themselves. It is clear in all cases that kindergarten teachers are responsible for the conditions and exercise leadership in relation to the game being played. Therefore, kindergarten teachers have an important task to perform when exercising leadership and deliberately deciding to support and stimulate children’s social skills through play. Kindergarten teachers can do this in a variety of different ways. The overview divides Kindergarten teachers’ actions in the studies into three categories: (1) direct, (2) participate, (3) observe and reflect.

The overview of knowledge is a synthesis of 15 research studies that have been systematically selected by researchers after extensive literature searches in Nordic and international databases. 

Fredriksson, K., Ekström, L., Hafsteinsdóttir, E., Bergman, E., Bergman, M., Engdahl, I., Sandberg, A., Lagerlöf, P. & Tullgren, C. (2019). “Att genom lek stödja och stimulera barns sociala förmågor – undervisning i förskolan”. Systematisk kunnskapsversikt. Skolforskningsinstitutet.