I’ve got a fun challenge for you today…
I still remember the first time I took a leap of faith and really leaned into connection with a child whose behaviors honestly scared me a little.
That first step? Terrifying.
But also…transformational.
Preschool Teachers: How Do You Build Trust with Hard-to-Reach Kids?
Preschool Challenging Behaviors: Avoid These 3 Mistakes!
I’m going to spill the tea on the three biggest mistakes I see when it comes to handling challenging behavior in preschool classrooms.
After working with thousands of amazing teachers, I’ve noticed a few common missteps that hold people back from getting the results they’re working so hard for. So let’s shine a light on what not to do—and what to do instead 👇
Early Childhood Educators: Let’s Talk About Facing Our Fears
Early Childhood Educators: What Do You Need NOW?
What do you need right now as an early childhood teacher?
Hope. Strategies. Love. Encouragement. A day off?
More money I’m sure (but I also know that’s not the reason you got into this).
Honestly I’m feeling a tad lost in how to support you all right now so can you let me know?
Share your what-I-need-now thoughts in the comments below.
Of course, first and foremost let me know about things you think I might actually be able to help you with - information, cheerleading, a training, a certain kind of strategy, behavior guidance, etc…
…but sometimes it’s helpful to just identify and state your needs even if those of us listening likely can’t do or change much; so feel free to write *whatever* came up when I asked.
Thank you for the work you do to support children and families.
3 Simple Preschool Challenging Behavior Prevention Ideas
Imagine what it would feel like to have a class full of children who self-regulate when upset and nobody gets hurt day after day, again and again - all without feeling like you’re putting out fires, running around to challenging behaviors…
Sounds like a dream, right?
Well, of course there will always be some challenging behavior in preschool but it is possible to proactively support children to learn to self-regulate, cooperate, and use their words way more often than their hands.
Preschool Challenging Behavior: From Hopeless to Successful
You feel like you have a decent set of challenging behavior strategies but no matter how hard you try, you just can’t quite effectively support that one child in the way you’d hoped.
Or maybe your class this year seemed to be going great in the beginning of the school year - until one child “regressed” when they got a new baby sibling or a new child joined your class who hits or “talks back” and not your seeing ‘copy cat’ behaviors and things seem to be getting worse and worse overtime.
Preschool Circle Time: The Transitions In and Out
When I became an early childhood professor, I had over 15 years of experience as a preschool teacher, and yet…
In my first year of teaching student teachers, I learned something vital from experienced colleagues and classroom teachers: the importance of transitions in and out of group activities, like circle time.
I had always sung transition songs like, “Come on over to the blue rug…” and while they worked for some children, they weren’t consistently effective.
I soon realized that successful teachers use highly effective transition activities — into and out of group time.
How Do We Make Circle Time Engaging for Preschoolers?
How do we make story time, circle time, and large group compelling, engaging and worth coming to for young children?
Developmentally it can be a tough time of day for some children.
Yet, learning to gather as a group, attending to the teacher, and participating is a worthy goal, given that this habit and skill is expected in later schooling.
Challenging Behavior, Early Childhood, and Taking Leadership
Most early childhood program leaders report more severe challenging behaviors…from more children, more often…than ever before.
Children and families come to us with tremendous hardship and oftentime trauma.
Early childhood teachers are still undervalued in society and usually underpaid.
Many U.S. based programs and teachers are now burdened with tremendous assessments, paperwork, requirements, and detailed specification for child outcomes.
While those assessments are nothing but well intentioned and good tools, completing them can feel burdensome and often pulls teachers out of interactions with children.
In most programs children’s time in open-ended play and exploration has shrunk.
…yet play is THE BEST WAY for children to naturally acquire self-regulation and social-emotional skills (the skills they need to avoid using challenging behaviors).
Increasing numbers of children receiving special education services attend early childhood programs where the teachers typically have no training in this area.
Most child development programs (CDA, AA, BS, MS) don’t graduate teachers bursting at the seams with excitement and confidence for working with challenging behaviors.
So, what does it mean to be a LEADER supporting teachers with challenging behaviors in this context? (Bear with me even if some details like #4 or #6 don’t apply to your program).
How do we empower teachers for challenging behavior success in this context?
How can you do the work required to support them efficiently given all your other work?
Those are leadership questions.
I’d like to keep having leadership conversations with you about this. Would you like to?
Let me know your thoughts and questions in the COMMENTS below.