Scheme teaches children to be pals

The Playing and Learning to Socialise (PALS) programme is being used at 50 nurseries, pre-schools and nursery schools in Hillingdon. PALS is a social skills programme that originated in Australia, developed by teachers and clinical psychologists for three- to six-year-olds.

In 20-minute sessions run over ten weeks, children learn greeting, turn-taking and sharing, speaking and listening, and problem-solving using puppets.

Early years inclusion advisor Julie Mellor, who conducted an evaluation of the programme, said, 'We teach the children about emotional literacy, like when you feel angry, recognising the feeling that creates in your stomach and counting to ten.'

Nine settings took part in an initial pilot with children chosen from a screening process where practitioners looked for 'internalising' behaviour - for example, children who did not talk to their peers or preferred to play alone - and 'externalising behaviour', such as children who did not do as they were asked or who behaved aggressively. Nurseries were randomly assigned either to take part in PALS (27 children in five settings) or to act as a control group (15 children in four settings).