ABSTRACT
In any setting, there are numerous roles that an adult has to undertake on a daily basis. However, the main role of the practitioner, once the children are in the setting, is to interact with the children as they play. This chapter describes what that means in a setting where the children are initiating the play. Clear boundaries and expectations are essential so that children understand that the adults are in charge and they can relax and ‘be the children’ within the given boundaries. Many interactions between adults and children will be concerned with this aspect of development. Practitioners in the early years have approximately 1,000 interactions per day. In the best settings, each of these interactions is a cycle in which the adult observes something, assesses it and responds appropriately to move the learning on – that is, they plan and teach in a matter of moments.
