Page - 65 - in ElFo - Elementarpädagogische Forschungsbeiträge, Volume Jahrgang 3 / Heft 1 / 2021

Indicators of educator-child-interaction quality in early childhood education ElFo – Elementarpädagogische Forschungsbeiträge (2021), 3 (1), S. 61-76 65 characteristics, such as giving appropriate impulses or considering individual needs. As a basis for high-quality interaction, each early childhood educator must be physically and emotionally present. This enables him or her to recognize and interpret the children's signals, to respond to the children's individual needs, and to provide appropriate stimuli. To create a comfortable climate, the children must experience stable, positive relationships. Should the children not be doing well, it is essential that their emotions be adequately perceived and addressed. In addition, the feeling of self-efficacy and participation is supported by the possibility of actively helping to organize everyday life. The clear use of a few sensible rules ensures that all children feel secure. An atmosphere of active communication and experimentation, in which all of a child's senses are engaged, is a further component in the provision of educator-child interac- tion quality. Figure 2: Theoretically derived interaction quality characteristics (on the basis of Walter-Laager et al., 2018) The properties (hereafter referred to as 'characteristics') of good practice, described above, have been operationalized in the form of an evaluation instrument - the Grazer Interaction Scale for Children from 0-3 Years (GrazIAS) (see point 3 in Figure 1) (Walter-Laager, Flöter, Geißler, Petritsch & Pölzl-Stefanec, 2019). Each of the characteristics for interaction quality (see Figure 2) is made up of a number of different components (hereafter referred to as 'as- pects'). Each aspect covering four consecutive qualitative levels (level 1 'insufficient', level 3 'minimum', level 5 'good' and level 7 'excellent'). This instrument has also been made available to the professional community.