Rainbow staff children’s support positive behaviour by providing a suitable environment to encourage children to make choices enabling them to have a sense of control over their lives, allowing them to take responsibility and develop confidence and independence, including:
- choosing activities and selecting resources
- choosing where they play – indoors or outdoors
- choosing what they eat and drink by offering food choices at snacks and meal times, and self-serving
- being responsible for tasks in the setting – for example, setting the table, pouring drinks, sweeping up sand, tidy-up time
- involvement in agreement of expectations by discussing boundaries and reasons for rules.
We also work hard at:
- meeting children’s physical needs for rest and sleep, and for food and exercise, to promote a sense of wellbeing
- ensuring that children have enjoyable and varied opportunities and experiences, including activities that provide stimulation, reflect their interests and give them the opportunity to express emotions
- providing a positive role model – using good manners, using resources and equipment appropriately and showing respect and kindness to those around us
Strategies for supporting children’s behaviour
- promote positive behaviour, and wherever possible focus on this
- all actions have consequences – these must be consistent across the team
- remember the age/stage of the child, and the child’s level of understanding, and use the appropriate strategy
- use facial expressions and body language to let children know that their behaviour is inappropriate – young children want adult approval
- say ‘no’ with eye contact, making sure that the child does not carry on with the behaviour
- distraction – effective with younger children as it takes their attention away from what is causing the difficulty, and also works with older children who are bored as it offers them another activity to carry out
- warn older children that they are showing unwanted behaviour, explain why the behaviour is not appropriate, remind them of the boundaries and consequences
- ignore attention-seeking behaviour if children are not at risk, as this does not reward children for their unwanted behaviour.
- sanctions – explain what will happen if the behaviour continues; a negative approach will not work if it is not followed through as children will learn that you do not carry out what you threatened
- remove equipment or resources – prevents the child from continuing to use items inappropriately, helps a younger child to change focus
- comfort children who have been affected by unwanted behaviour to alleviate their distress and make clear to the attention-seeking child that their behaviour will not be rewarded with adult attention
Biting
- First try to change your perspective and not fame it as a ‘problem’ it’s normal and natural behaviour for the child’s age and stage of development
- Second, clear and consistent response. “No biting… It hurts” – then turn your back and deal with the child who was bitten, showing them love, care and attention
- Third, try to understand what’s going on. Biting on the face is always affection. It’s a kiss gone wrong. Biting someone’s hand is usually frustration because the other child has what they want! These things can be avoided by staff paying special attention and catching the signs early enough: for example finding alternatives (quickly) if you see early signs of frustration
- Use of language and words from the child will replace biting as their language skills develop. So lots of language support will help him or her express their needs in other ways
- Biting is very ‘powerful’ because of the reactions from the staff, children and those who get bitten – so try to minimise the power attached biting.
- Provide lots of opportunities to be with the older children
Children do bite! And… for all sorts of reasons.
At Rainbow, our policy is for one team member to immediately comfort the child who has been bitten, and if required apply an ice pack to manage any bruising or swelling, and another team member
reminding them in a stern, but supportive voice “No Biting! We don’t bite our friends at nursery! Teeth are for eating with”. Sometimes children who have bitten may need just as much support and comforting as the child who was bitten. Where we see a pattern of the same child biting, then we start to keep observational records, and try to identify any triggers, we will discuss any situations with parents whenever they occur. This will usually be managed by the team leader and/or the child’s key worker.
Biting is most common at the toddler age group, when children are between one and two years old. There can be many reasons why children bite. Young toddlers often bite as a way of showing love. “Toddlers have really intense feelings but don’t know how to show them,” says Dirk Flower, chartered psychologist. “Biting can be a way of expressing their feelings. Biting on the face, is often a ‘misplaced’ or over emotional ‘kiss’, whereas biting another child’s hand can often be a sign of frustration. Staff at Rainbow try very hard to look out for signs and triggers so we can see if a bite is coming… but so often bites are VERY fast and there may be no warning signs at all.
Here are some links to articles on the internet which provide some useful insights!
Development of Emotional Language to Support biting
Strategies for preventing repeated biting in day care
A great guide to biting – why, how and what to do!
Tips for preventing biting – with a short video!
Here is a forum of daycare workers, linked to the EYFS website in the UK