Good pals

Kate the kookaburra, Anna the kangaroo and Jack the koala are a set of A'stralian glove puppets that are helping young children in a London borough develop key social skills.

Under the Play and Learning to Socialise (PALS) programme, they are being 'sed to encourage turn-taking and sharing as well as identifying and managing feelings such as anger and anxiety. PALS was imported into the UK by the early years incl'sion team at Hillingdon Council when they were looking for a pro-active way to help practitioners cope with a range of behaviours.

Behaviour issues accounted for about a quarter of the requests for support from early years settings, says Julie Mellor, Hillingdon's early years incl'sion advisor. We had developed our own behaviour pack and offered training and support to settings, but Simon James (Hillingdon's early years educational psychologist) and I wanted to do something more than waiting to respond to behaviours. We wanted to promote emotional literacy and support young children in developing social skills. PALS, which was set up in 1999, fitted the bill because it is evidence-based and aimed at the three- to six- year-old age group, and so could cover transition into school. Its rationale is based on the idea that the development of early social skills are vital for good mental health.