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FAMILIES AND TEACHERS spend countless hours supporting preschoolers and primary age children in the development of mental tools like focus, memory, and other problemsolving skills (Bodrova & Leong 2007) that help children think better, pay attention, and remember what they have experienced. Children use these tools to succeed in reading, writing, math, science, and other content areas; they can learn them from adults through a process called guided participation (Rogoff 1990, 4-5).
Young children can also apply mental tools to build social problemsolving skills. While teachers and parents often focus on the ABC's and the 123's, they may pay limited attention to young children's needs to develop socially, make friends, be a friend, and be part of a group. Helping young children develop social skills as they interact with peers and adults can support them now and in the future, as peer acceptance supports positive social development (Choi & Kim 2003).
A growing body of research shows that when making bids to join play with their peers, young children with strong social skills are successful more often than those who lack such skills (Howes et al. 1988; Ladd 1990; Mize 1995; Rubin 2002; Corsaro 2003). "Making bids to join play" describes what children say and do to ask peers to let them join in ongoing play. Children who have difficulty solving social problems need opportunities to learn the skills used to engage in positive social interac- tions during play and other experi- ences, such as sitting together at the snack table, waiting for a turn at the sink, and sharing seats on the bus.
Teachers can use guided participation (Rogoff 1990; Rogoff et al. 1993) as part of their approach to helping children learn how to solve social problems. Rogoff and her colleagues define guided participation as the process teachers use to help children as they learn to communicate with and join in activities with other children (1993). They suggest using guided participation to help children improve their thinking skills. While interacting with an accomplished adult to solve a problem, children can build the skills needed to join other children in play.
Focus, attention, memory, and problem-solving skills allow children to attend to a question or issue at hand. Children use the same cognitive processes...