Behaviour Management

Consistency, stating clear expectations, intervention and providing a high energy/exciting program are main strategies for behaviour modification. These steps are taken to ensure that it is easy to practice appropriate behaviours:
 

1. Positive reinforcement. It is very important to reward the child by acknowledging appropriate behaviour. This can be done verbally by praising the child or in writing.

2. Role model the appropriate behaviour and explain why certain behaviours are more acceptable, offering suggestions on ways to handle the situations. Example: Child is screaming for something: calmly say “use your words - not that yelling sound and explain what you would like.” By not giving into the screaming the child will learn that there are ways to ask and explain what is wanted/needed. If the child continues to scream and carry on, help her move away from the situation to an area where her attention could be diverted. Talk about what was going on, how the loud noise only made people’s ears hurt and did not make what she wanted to happen.

3. Intervention is the key to discipline. If a situation is making a child over stimulated/excited, redirect the child to another activity and after the child calms down and gains control of their emotions, return to the first activity together. The world is a big place and to a young child it can be overwhelming so being ready to intervene to avoid a big blowup is crucial.

4. Put activities away for a period of time explaining, that at this time her actions/voice are showing she is not ready to take part in that activity and that it will be available again some other time when she is more ready to play with that activity safely.

5. It is important for children to be physical and challenged to try new things. Each day, weather permitting we will take part in outside play.

6. Establish a predictable routine. This is vital in alleviating behavioral problems. When children know what will happen next, they are more likely to look forward to changing activities and feel less anxious about what is expected of them.

7. Use consequences when all intervention strategies fail and the undesirable behaviour still exists.
    

• Clearly tell the child what needs to stop and change.

• Give a warning that the behaviour is still there.

• Then if there is no adjustment to the behaviour remove the privilege / activity that the child is currently at or something more immediate not something in the future.

• Afterwards discuss why the consequence happened and figure out better ways to handle similar situations in the future.

• Alert the parents verbally and with an incident report so that they will be aware that their child and the staff are working on eliminating a certain behaviour. If the behaviour persists, then a meeting with the child and parents needs to take place to discover why the message is not being understood by the child and to determine what steps would need to be taken next.
   

If a child enrolled in the program physically or verbally assaults another child or staff, a warning letter will be sent to the parents of that child. If a second incident should occur, the family must make other child care arrangements as the child will be expelled from the program.

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At no time will staff or volunteers ever use physical punishment which includes striking the child, either directly or with an object, shaking, shoving, spanking or forcing a child to repeat physical movements, force feeding or any other action carried out which results in physical injury to the child. Nor will a staff or volunteer ever use verbal or emotional abuse which includes any harsh, belittling, or degrading response which would humiliate or undermine a child’s self-respect. A child will never be denied any of the physical necessities which include shelter, clothing, food, or toileting.