Promoting peer interactions of preschool children with behavior problems : A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract: Behavior problems are quite common in preschool.  Without effective intervention, children with behavior problems are at risk for rejection by teachers, peers and academic failure. But many children in preschool are not diagnosed and are not getting the support they need. At the age of two, children can show both prosocial and aggressive behavior with peers. Researchers stress the importance of positive peer relationships in childhood, because early childhood is the time children learn how to interact with each other. Through peer interactions children develop social, cognitive and language skills. The aim of this systematic literature review is to identify, and critically analyze, special support in preschool which promote peer interaction of children with behavior problems (age of 2-5 years). Five studies, with different interventions have been found through the search procedure. The results show that all the implemented interventions had positive effect on peer interactions and did reduce behavior problems in the classrooms. The results show that the studies focused on different behavior problems, but aggression was found in all the articles.  The studies were focused on different participants in order to influence behavior problems and peer interactions. Four major groups of special support orientations were found: Teacher oriented support, Team-based oriented support, Peer oriented support and Support oriented toward target children. This review presents a good overview on available special support in preschool settings, however more research still needs to be done.