The most significant trends and issues in guiding children's behavior - Essay Example

The most significant trends and issues in guiding children's behavior Discipline is a key issue when guiding the children’s behavior. It is something adults do with and also, for kids, other than to kids to prevent them from behaving in immoral and irresponsible ways. Guiding a kid’s behavior majorly deals with helping the children become self disciplined as they attempt to learn acceptable and appropriate behaviors. Methods of guiding a child’s behavior are continuous. According to Coloroso (2000), guiding a child’s behavior gets done, while, at the same time, behavior is showing, as well as prior to, before and after poor socially unacceptable behavior begins to show. While there exist a number of theories and approaches dealing with guiding children’s behavior, the set goal is still constant, to help the children in building respect, self confidence, gaining self control and becoming sensitive in their daily interactions with other kids. Self discipline needs an understanding of an individual’s self and at the same time, an understanding of the couple of ways in which one can cope with the existing difficulties, disappointments, and frustrations. Self discipline gives an individual the ability to concentrate on an event so long as it is deemed necessary to enable the child learn, perfect or complete it. Guiding young kids involve a number of tasks. Parents are solely responsible for identifying and at the same time, enforcing reasonable and clear limits, while slowly giving freedom to children by trying to encourage them to be solely responsible for their self and all their actions. A positive approach is significant when teaching young children how to cope with skills and also, self-control while trying to discourage inappropriate and destructive behavior (Coloroso, 2000). Even though, children seek their freedom from the set rules and regulations that limits them at an early age, they still require constant guidance and structure. Children upbringing as individuals depends majorly on making their own choices and facing the consequences of their actions and decisions directly (Nelson, 2002). Parents do not possess many skills for guiding their children. Preventing a child’s misbehavior takes a lot of planning and preparation. Effective and corrective discipline measures focus on the child’s development and maintains the kid's dignity and also self-esteem. In guiding children’s behavior, the kids should have choices. This is an effective way in guiding a child to build decision making skills, and mould a kid’s self discipline. Nevertheless, a parent should give choices he or she is willing to allow. Parents should use more dos than don’ts in guiding a child’s behavior. They can consider giving the kid a go ahead light instead of a stop light. Guardians should set only the necessary limits. Only the principal ones and the ones viewed as necessary for a child to be safe. The set limits should also be reasonable. Is the kid capable? At times, the parent’s exceptions are too high and should be moved to fit the kid’s capabilities. The set limits should be comprehensible and clear. The parent should give information that is sufficient as well as understandable to the children and other member of the family (Nelson & Lott, 2004). The set limits should be consistent that is, they should never change at all. They should not change as the kid grows and becomes more self disciplined. Consider how past trends and societal approaches contribute to the current thoughts. In the past traditional era, physical punishment was common as a form of punishing wayward behaviors by the children. Nevertheless as, times changed, dialogue has become introduced among parents and their children preventing further instances of the physical punishment. According to Coloroso (2000), parents nowadays sit down with their kids and even discuss the punishments they deem appropriately. What are the best approaches and strategies in the early childhood classroom for dealing with behaviors? Support your response with examples and citations. Children in a number of early childhood classrooms are less known for having the best behavior. Children in this age bracket are still developing their sense of what should be viewed as right and wrong. How the teachers create their classroom environment and also the surrounding, will have a direct impact on the students' growing behavior. Though there exists certain levels of freedom that should be available in the early childhood classroom, there are a number of systems of behavior management that can be implemented to assist in leveling down the behavioral concerns (Nelson, 2002). Classroom Rules The students can never be expected to behave in a properly designated way, if they are not aware of the rules they become required to follow. Once the teacher has determined what the classroom rules will be, they should be written down on a big poster. Since the children still cannot read, pictures should be added for each rule. The rules should be kept way short and easy to understand (Nelson & Lott, 2004). The posters should be hanged down near the circle time region, and the classroom rules should be reviewed by the students each and every day during circle time. Planning Transitions An opportune moment for the kids to misbehave is during the period that they are change from one event to the other. The teacher should create a classroom timetable and stick by it at all times. The teachers should coordinate with their assistants, to enable the students have a routine to transitions between different events. For an example, when changing from lunch break to sleeping time, the teacher can read a story or two to the students, while his or her assistants take a couple of kids to the potty to clean their hands and then head to the sleeping mats. This helps in preventing the chaos of all the kids trying to doing one thing at the exact time (Nelson, 2002). Reinforcements Attempting to reinforce positive behaviors is more efficient than punishing all the negative behaviors. The teachers should be praising all positive behaviors more often. Sticker charts should become implemented to allow the kids track their own class progress. At the end of each day, the teacher should place a sticker on each chart of the kid that behaved properly on that day. When the kid fills up the entire space on his chart, he or she can select a small reward from the reward box. The teacher should send a letter home with the kid, informing the parents that their child got rewarded for excellent behavior (Coloroso, 2000). Consistency The set classroom rules should become applied at every time and also in all occasions. If a teacher fails to adhere to the rules, when they get broken, the students tend to assume that the rules are not necessary. The teachers should talk to the students as soon as an incident takes place, and redirect the negative behavior and use the time outs often. It is necessary for teachers to follow through with the set rules and limits (Nelson & Lott, 2004). References Coloroso, B. (2000). Parenting with Wit and Wisdom. Toronto: Penguin Books Limited. Nelson, J. (2002). Time out. Fair Oaks. United States: Sunrise Press. Nelson, J., & Lott, L. (2004). Discipline for Teenagers. New York: Prima Publishing. Read More