Shifting How we Manage Challenging Behaviors: Try Creating Consistency between Home & School

Any intervention that is put in place to support children through challenging situations is going to be even more effective if it is implemented consistently across all environments. This is just one of the reasons that family engagement and strong relationships are encouraged in early learning environments.

Be sure to share some of the strategies that you have found to be effective with families.  This can be done in a general newsletter announcement, daily reports, or in a one-on-one conversation with families. Be sure to use positive and growth mindset language when communicating about the supports you are putting in place.  For example, you could say:

• Did you know that children often express themselves through their behaviors? We are dedicated to helping children learn different ways to communicate their needs to reduce the number of behavior incidents each day.
• Children of this age are working hard to establish autonomy. It is an important developmental stage that is sometimes characterized by undesirable behaviors. Here’s what you can do to promote autonomy at home…
• To help Sammy move through transitions, we are approaching him a few times before each transition to let him know that it is time to wrap up his play because it’s time to move on to the next activity.
• Abigail is still working on being able to share toys with others. We are adding lots of chances for her to practice sharing into our upcoming unit on community helpers.

Family education nights are a great opportunity to share strategies with families, as are family-teacher conferences. Online parenting resources, such as ParentEducate.com, are another tool that can be shared with families.  ParentEducate.com offers a free 1-week trial for families to explore early childhood topics written by education experts.

Introduce families to different ways of viewing behaviors. Talk with families about being proactive in order to prevent some of the more predictable behaviors from occurring. Prompt families to think about the transitions that children move through at home and remind them about children’s limited mental flexibility skills.

Encourage families to try some of the strategies that seem to work in the learning environment. Also, ask families how they handle certain situations at home. Brainstorm possible shifts that could be made, and together, assemble a full bag of tricks that you can use to support children across all environments.

For the main article Shifting How we Manage Challenging Behaviors, CLICK HERE

For the article Try Viewing Behavior in a New Light, CLICK HERE

For the article Try Taking a Proactive Approach, CLICK HERE

For the article Try Rethinking Transitions, CLICK HERE