Early childhood educators need a variety of ways to deal with children and their behaviors.  It is important to understand that what works with one child will not necessarily work with another.  Additionally, what works in one situation with a child may not work with that same child in the same situation at a later time.

Can the behavior of a four-year-old be managed?  The answer is yes, at least to a certain extent.  However, you must remember that four-year-olds are in the process of learning what is acceptable behavior and what isn’t.  While they are learning, errors and misunderstandings will occur.  Helping young children learn to manage their behavior themselves is the ultimate goal and will require a great deal of patience on your part.

Remember the old saying, “Children should be seen but not heard?”  Some teachers and parents/guardians still believe this.  Often, adults measure the quality of a child’s behavior by the degree to which he or she is polite, neat, orderly, and quiet.  If we examine these notions, we find that children will all have difficulty measuring up to adult expectations.  Most children are noisy, messy, rude, and disorderly on occasion.  Sometimes, adults cling to the management methods they know best.  But these techniques are sometimes based on outdated notions about early childhood education. They might even work against the children’s best interests.

I invite you to reexamine your experiences as a child, teacher, or parent.  I also ask that you explore the new approaches to teaching that I recommend throughout this program.  I encourage you to stay with what you know works and, at the same time, remain open to new possibilities.  Working with young children and their parents or guardians can be quite challenging and stressful.  It is my sincere hope that you will avoid some of that stress while experiencing more of the joy that comes from helping children grow.  One way to help children is by working with the people who ordinarily are responsible for them.  Parents, guardians, and teachers working together will observe and learn from one another. 

Let me share a story with you.  Donna Harris is the loving mother of two-year-old Sierra.  Since Donna works outside the home, Sierra attends a local child care center. Recently, Donna became concerned when she realized that Sierra was not making a smooth adjustment to a new classroom, evidenced by daily screams and temper tantrums.  When Sierra’s teachers first discussed this with Donna they assured her that the problem was not serious and could be resolved fairly simply.  After talking with Donna about possible changes at home to eliminate the influence of household stress, the teacher invited Donna to visit the classroom for an hour each morning during the children’s arrival time.  After watching other parents drop off their children over a period of several days, Donna realized that she was negatively influencing Sierra’s adjustment.  She was drawing too much attention to her departure and may have even wanted Sierra to cry a little to demonstrate attachment to her mother.  Discussion with the teachers helped support Donna’s conclusions that this behavior was not healthy for her daughter.  The result was that Donna began to change her style of departure in the mornings.  Soon, happy smiles and waves replaced the daily tantrums and screams as Sierra’s mother left for work.

It’s essential to develop an accurate picture of all the circumstances surrounding problem behaviors.  To do this you must learn and understand all aspects of a child’s health or family history that may be influencing the negative behavior.  It is only when the signals of a child’s problems are ignored over time that he or she becomes difficult to help.  Information obtained from parents and guardians can provide a strong foundation for helping children develop appropriate behaviors.

Deann Deloney

Early Childhood Education-Teacher Assisting-Child Care Instructor

Ashworth College

One of the most important types of creative activity for young children is creative play. Creative play is expressed when children engage in role-playing and imaginative play. Nothing reinforces the creative spirit and nourishes a child's soul more than providing large blocks of time to engage in spontaneous, self-directed play throughout the day. The opportunity to play freely is vital to their healthy development.

What are some of the ways we can encourage play in our classrooms? As caregivers, we must be careful to avoid dominating the play ourselves. Play should be the result of the children's ideas and not directed by the adult. Through play, we should try to foster children's abilities to express themselves. We should also try to help children base play on their own inspirations - not ours. Our goal is to stimulate play - not control it - and to encourage children's satisfaction in playing with each other.

Pay attention to play, plan for it, encourage it. Learn how to extend children's play through comments and questions. Stimulate creative ideas by encouraging children to come up with new and unusual uses of equipment. Try to remain open to new and original ideas, and encourage children to come up with more than one solution or answer. Be careful about over-restricting equipment and make sure to have play materials quickly available when children want them. Buy and use equipment in ways that encourage the use of imagination. Avoid toys and activities that spell everything out for the child and leave nothing to the imagination. Provide children with a good range and balance of equipment, and keep equipment exciting by changing it frequently or changing its location.

Article Source: http://www.pbs.org

The responsibility level of teacher assistants varies.  Some teacher assistants do not have much involvement in the planning or implementation of learning activities.  They are probably in the minority.  Other teacher assistants may be responsible for planning and leading many learning activities.  Some teacher assistants may be limited to following the teacher's instructions when preparing for activities and others are given great leeway.

For example, Rose is given a stack of detailed instructions for copying and cutting and preparing, so that the teacher will have everything she needs to lead the activity.  On the other hand, Tom is told that he needs to come up with art and cooking activities to illustrate the unit on Mexico; the teacher simply tells him when the activities will fit into the schedule and leaves the planning and leading entirely up to him.  Then of course there are different degrees of responsibility, from one extreme to the other.  Don't think you're "stuck," though, if you're not given much opportunity for creativity and freedom when you first begin to work with a teacher.  Generally, after a while of working together, interdependence and trust grow within teacher and teacher assistant teams and teacher assistants are "turned loose" more.

It’s important to remind yourself to discuss questions, ideas, philosophies, and specific tasks ahead of time and as needed.  A major key for a good working relationship between a teacher and a teacher assistant is communication.

Ideas for learning activities are everywhere.  In fact, just this morning I saw some great learning activities on the back of my kids' cereal box!  The topic was inventions and for morning brain exercise, kids could solve word scrambles, riddles, and a crossword puzzle, right there at the breakfast table.  My point is you don't really have to look far to find ideas for learning activities.  Just keep your eyes open!  Remember, even when activities seem too complicated or too simple for your students, they may be adapted successfully so that they are on target.  Any activity idea you see can be the seed for one that will grow and work for you and your students.

Activities, though valuable educational tools, can result in messes, too.  Here are two tips about keeping things clean:  1) Shaving cream is listed as a good material for finger painting.  A fun way to get desk or table tops clean is to tell the children to finger paint with shaving cream directly on the surface.  After they have played and created enough, the shaving cream can be washed off.  2) Adding liquid soap or dish detergent to tempera paint makes cleanup easier.

I hope some of these basic activities give you a jumping off point for developing your own. 

Deann Deloney

Early Childhood Education-Teacher Assisting-Child Care Instructor

Ashworth College

You may have heard the following statement before, but it’s worth repeating:

A hundred years from now it will not matter the sort of house you lived in, what your bank account was, or the kind of car you drove, but the world may be different because you were important in the life of a child.

Working with children is important and far easier if we understand what children are like at different ages.  For example, children may appear to be naughty or disrespectful when, in fact, their behavior is perfectly normal for their age.

Taking care of children is one of life’s most delightful and challenging experiences.  It draws on all our reserves of knowledge.  Yet, no matter how much we already know or how sound our instincts may be, occasions will arise when more information or a different point of view is all we need to do the right thing.

In order to be a good care giver and teacher, you need to know about children’s patterns of growth and development in general.  You will be more effective if you use this information to serve the children in your group.  You need to know what they can do, what their interests are, their languages and cultural heritages, their strengths and weaknesses, how they think, and what new skills they are learning.  If you know the range of behaviors to expect, you can help children make the most of each stage.

I want to help you learn the fundamental traits specific to every stage of the child’s development, from infancy to early adolescence.  It’s important to have solid grasp of all the key issues in a child’s physical, psychological, and social development.  The importance of being “in-tune” with a child’s own rhythm and pace can not be overestimated. Observing and being sensitive to what a child needs and desires will go a long way toward providing him or her with the very best of care.

In years past, when a young child differed physically or emotionally from other children, adults would shake their heads and say that the child would probably “outgrow it.”  It was also taken for granted that some children just grew up “different” or “strange.”  Today, we know a great deal more about child development, and fortunately these older attitudes are less widespread.  In fact, if ignored, a child’s problem may not go away.  Unless parents and educators pay proper attention, a negative social situation may only make matters worse.

Most of all, children need lots of time, lots of experiences, and a lot of skilled people like you to become their best selves.  Respect each stage of development and enjoy it.

Deann Deloney

Early Childhood Education-Child Care Instructor

Ashworth College

When I was a novice teacher, I had a child in my group who was never very vocal and did not participate in circle time.  He didn’t interact with the other children and preferred to play alone.  As I did my observations of him, I became concerned that he might have a physical problem or a behavioral issue.  Then one day his mother asked me for the words to the songs and finger plays we were doing in school.  I was shocked when she reported that he sang all the time at home, and loved to read books and draw. I had made a difference for this child.  He just wasn’t ready to share his learning in school.  What a joyous experience for me as a teacher!

This experience served as a reality check for me.  I realized that teachers and primary caregivers must have good communication regarding the growth and learning of the children in whose development and education we each have a role.  Parents and guardians are the best resources for curriculum planning.  Information they provide can ensure an interesting, multicultural curriculum—which is the goal of all teachers and responsible caregivers.

One of my colleagues faced a challenge with a child who just wanted to play with the dinosaurs in the block area.  The teacher tried everything she could think of to get him to move to other learning areas.  She evaluated the math table for the right number of enrichments.  Dramatic play had dress-up clothes, lots of supplies for the kitchen, and even a recycled telephone.  The table toys were organized with at least ten sets of manipulatives.  The creative art center had lots of supplied that were available all the time.

What else could she do?  Then she realized it was up to her to meet the challenge. If the child was interested only in dinosaurs, she would add them to each learning area. She added dinosaur counters to the math table and a dinosaur dress-up suit to dramatic play.  She included dinosaur figures among the table toys.  Creative art now included dinosaur sponge shapes for painting and larger shapes to trace.  She even included a new dinosaur puppet in her circle time props.  She was pleased to see that as she introduced the new puppet in the morning circle time he showed renewed interest.  The first day, she introduced only the puppet and the new additions in the creative art area.  Every day she introduced a new dinosaur in another learning area.  As the week progressed, the boy began to experience all the learning areas, and the teacher was delighted to see that her ideas were working.

It is our job as teachers to find the key that will unlock the door to learning for each child as an individual.  This is the real challenge of curriculum design.  Do the children get it?  How can we make it all come together for a successful learning experience for each child?  That’s an awesome task, but every good teacher loves a challenge.

Deann Deloney

Early Childhood Education-Child Care Instructor

Ashworth College