raukiya
With this type of challenging behaviour, it’s important to put proactive strategies in place to reduce the likelihood of it occurring. This includes:
- Teaching your expectations clearly (e.g. ‘We use gentle hands and feet’). You may do small group activities focused around these expectations to make sure that children know what they mean.
- Modelling how to play in different situations, including sharing. Act out good behaviour in front of the children.
- Reinforcing them when they do it correctly, giving them praise or attention.
- Providing activities where children can express their feelings so they don’t need to resort to challenging behaviour, such as puppets, circle time, and quiet areas to go to.
If the behaviour does occur:
- Make sure the other child is OK.
- Take the child to a quiet space for thinking time if they need it – not as a punishment, but to help them calm down and not hurt anyone else.
- Let the child know you understand how they feel, but separate the feeling from behaviour (e.g. ‘I can see that you’re angry because Sam took the toy you were playing with, but it’s not OK to bite’).
- Don’t force the child to apologise, but wait until they have calmed down, and then discuss how you could make the injured child feel better.
