The Making Friends Program: Supporting Acceptance in Your K–2 Classroom

Bullying prevention starts with helping young children understand and accept diversity—the earlier the better. That's why your school team needs this ready-to-use resource, a simple, fun, and effective way to promote social acceptance in the critical early years of attitude development.

Perfect for K–2 classrooms, this book presents the field-tested, research-based Making Friends program, a toolbox of adaptable, practical strategies that fit right into your regular school day. You'll help students respect and accept each other's differences through three methods: 1) reading diversity-themed stories and conducting brief whole-class discussions; 2) forming small learning groups that encourage children from diverse backgrounds to play and interact; and 3) sharing the storybooks you read with families so they can continue discussions at home. Aligned with DEC/NAEYC recommended practices and the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards, this proven program will boost students' social and academic skills as you create a welcoming, inclusive, and culturally responsive classroom.

USE THIS PROGRAM TO

• enrich your existing classroom activities—circle time, class discussion, cooperative play—with important lessons on social acceptance
• strengthen students' literacy skills while they learn to accept and celebrate differences
• support friendships among children of diverse abilities, backgrounds, and family structures
• lay the groundwork for bully-free school environments
• choose books, toys, and other materials that reflect our diverse world and give young children a sense of belonging
• implement a universal design for learning (UDL) approach to address the needs of diverse learners
• "think on your feet" to work lessons on acceptance into small teachable moments and everyday conversations
• increase the home-school connection with strategies parents can use with their children
• strengthen understanding of how acceptance is developed through reflective activities for teachers and school-wide teams

PRACTICAL MATERIALS: The book includes a complete package of reproducible, adaptable materials for implementing the Making Friends program, including a sample activity schedule, discussion guides, and forms to send home with families. You'll also get step-by-step directions on working the activities into your school day, extensive lists of diversity resources, vignettes that model positive interactions, and more.

Dr. Paddy C. Favazza has a background and research focus in the areas of: the social inclusion, attitude development, and social and motor development with particular interest in curriculum development related to inclusion and motor development and, the use of motor skill programs for young children with disabilities as a vehicle for inclusion within the family, school and community in developing nations in a global context. Professor Favazza is a former teacher of young children with disabilities, an advocate for the rights and dignity of all children; committed to ensuring that curriculum and strategies used in early childhood have sound theoretical underpinnings, represent evidenced based practice, engage families and are culturally responsive.

Dr. Michaelene M. Ostrosky is Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professor of Education and Head of the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She has been involved in research and dissemination on the inclusion of children with disabilities, social-emotional competence, and challenging behavior.

Through her work on the national Center on the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning she was involved in the development of the Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Young Children. Professor Ostrosky is a former editor of Young Exceptional Children (YEC) and the co-editor of several YEC monographs. She co-authored the Making Friends book (2016), which supports the acceptance of individuals with disabilities, and The Project Approach for All Learners (2018).

Professor Ostrosky has been recognized for her professional accomplishments with honors such as UIUC University Scholar, Goldstick Family Scholar, College of Education Senior Scholar, and the Division of Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children’s Award for Mentoring.

Dr. Chryso Mouzourou is Senior Research Associate in the Department of Human Sciences at the Ohio State University. Her background and research include exploring perspectives on disabilities within communities, including families and schools, peer relationships, children's perspectives about disabilities, and cross-cultural constructions of disability as they manifest in and impact policy and practice. As a former teacher of children with diverse abilities, Professor Mouzourou is dedicated to ensuring that practitioners have access to best practices for children and their families, and that her writing and teaching reflect understanding of theoretical underpinnings and current research and practice.

Samuel L. Odom, Ph.D., is the former Director of the Frank Porter Graham (FPG) Child Development Institute where he remains as a Senior Research Scientist. Prior to his work at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Odom served in faculty positions at Indiana University and Peabody College/Vanderbilt University. Dr. Odom received a master's degree in special education in 1976 and an educational specialist degree in educational psychology from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1979. He earned his doctorate in 1982 in education and human development from the University of Washington.

Throughout his career, Dr. Odom has held positions as a preschool teacher, student teaching supervisor, program coordinator, teacher educator, and researcher. Dr. Odom's research interests include interventions and teaching approaches that promote social competence of young children, effective intervention approaches for children with autism, and early childhood curricula that promote children's school success. He is the author or co-author of over 175 journal articles and book chapters and has edited 10 books on early childhood intervention and developmental disabilities. His current research is addressing treatment efficacy for children and youth with ASD in elementary and high school grades. Also, he is the Co-Director of the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice at FPG. Dr. Odom is an associate editor for Exceptional Children and is on the editorial board of Journal of Early Intervention, Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. He received the Special Education Outstanding Research Award from the American Educational Research Association Special Education Special Interest Group in 1999, the Merle Karnes Contribution to the Field Award from the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) in 2001, and the Outstanding Special Education Research Award from CEC in 2007. In 2013, he received the Arnold Lucius Gesell Prize awarded for career achievement in research on social inclusion and child development from the Theordor Hellbrugge Foundation in Munich, Germany. In 2016, he received an honorary doctoral degree from Stockholm University. He is currently a visiting professor at Stockholm University and San Diego State University.