A Study on the Characteristics of Young Children's Peer Interaction and Their Influencing Factors in Mixed-Age Role Play

Peer interaction among young children is beneficial to their development. Peer interaction among young children is conducive to their development, and mixed-age role-play creates a "quasi-natural" ecological environment, which is the closest to young children's life and development. This paper is divided into four parts. The first part defines the concept and meaning of mixed-age role play; the second part describes the different characteristics of children of different ages in terms of age and gender, and explores the reasons for the differences; the third part explores the factors affecting young children's interactions, and finds that the role of the game, the game materials, and the rules of the game have an impact on young children's interactions; and the fourth part tries to put forward a number of targeted recommendations to the educators: firstly, create a new environment to facilitate the development of young children. The fourth part tries to put forward a few targeted suggestions for educators: first, create a mixed-age environment to meet the interaction needs of large, medium and small classes respectively; second, pay attention to individual differences and respect the subjectivity of young children's play; third, enhance the level of young children's interaction through roles and materials. Through studying the interaction characteristics of children of different age groups in mixed-age role play, and exploring the factors affecting children's interaction, we propose educational suggestions to improve children's peer interaction ability and promote children's development.