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Positive Behaviour Management


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As a staff team we need a refresher on positive behaviour management. I have done a course or two but not for some time and would like to have a staff meeting based on this subject. Do you guys out there have any titbits which would help me pull together a simple but effective model for our meeting?

We try to say things like 'always walk' rather than 'don't run'

We emphasise the good things we see and hear and try to play down the negative

We try to greet each child individually each day and give them our attention or play alongside them at least once a day

We try and build self-esteem by using group times to 'big-up' individual children's achievements

 

What else?

Perhaps we could makea mnemonic on P R A I S E! What do you think.

 

All help greatly appreciated. No doubt we could all benefit from this too...........

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the one thing that always sticks in my mind from behaviour management training is that children never hear the first word you say, hence saying "don't run" all they hear is "run"! so put a name or word in front before the behaviour you want the child to show ...try it it really works... :o

 

Inge

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We have a 'praise tree'. We have a pad of heart shaped postits alongside it and when we observe the children doing something 'praiseworthy' we make a big fuss of them, write down what they did and ask them to peg it on the tree. The children take the postit home at the end of the session to show their parent/carer.

Rose

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we use reward books. Each child has a small booklet with their name on the front and a cartoon pic of me saying "Yippee" My teacher is proud of me because........ then inside we date and write down what the praise was for and stick a sticker or picture card in their book. The books go home each Friday. They are very time consuming to manage, but are very popular with parents and children. I've started using a system rather like Rose's where I have a star learners display which promotes lots of the behaviour, learning behaviour I want to see in words and pictorially. On this I have put a yippee board with pics of the adults doing a thumbs up sign. If I want to reward a child I put their name and praise worthy behaviour on a post it note up here, then it gets transferred to their book with a sticker. I've found this helps to make the process more manageable and encourages more staff to get involved.

 

AOB

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Our Early Years Inclusion Team are visiting our setting tomorrow evening to give a workshop on Behaviour Management - I'll let you know if any particular suggestions/tips are worthy of passing on.

I have a leaflet called 'Time In' which I like - basically always trying to praise all and any wanted behaviour, not just the 'just achieved something' very good, but the every day just playing good, ignore minor unwanted behaviour (removal of attention) at same time praising another child. Never use back handed compliments 'why can't you always sit so nicely'. Children praised in front of their parents/carers is especially potent, and of course the reverse is true, so we should not criticise children in front of their parents (low self esteem).

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I've found the best way to encourage wanted behaviour is to praise it in others, the child not joining in, sharing, playing nicely doesnt get a mention until they do join in etc.. I never make a reference to their unwanted behaviour if it isnt endangering others. The fact that Joe wont help to tidy up isnt a problem, but he gets praise when he does. :o

I also sometimes ask the other children to intervene, especially at story time when one or two might be chatting, fidgeting, rolling on the cushions. I stop the story and get the children to tell me why I've stopped. They usually know why, and I ask them to tell their friends to be quiet/keep still please so we can listen. That tends to work with the older ones and the 'top dogs' dont like being told by their peers much either. xD:D

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I love both of those display ideas Rose and AOB - we have a star of the day system where we pick 3/4 children who have been observed showing good behaviour (social or learning) to have a sticker at home-time and staff make sure parents know what sticker is for.

 

We gave up giving stickers straight to children at time because they had so often lost them by home-time - putting a note on a display would give instant reward at the time, followed up by the sticker shared at home-time.

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We used to have a general sticker chart,but this didn't seem to work very well. I've now devised individual sticker charts for rewards when children have done some fabulous work of have shown kindness and concern for others. This is good practise for name recognition as well as saving the stickers (which the children love to count how many they have achieved!!) and not having the disappointment of losing their sticker before they have a chance to show parents/carers.

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Guest HelenW

Can I ask where the heart shaped post its are from please Rose, I think thats a really wonderful idea and would like to do that here.

 

Thank You

 

Helen

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One of my tactics is to enable the children to sort own problems out with regard to say sharing toys. Often adults will step in too soon to solve disputes. Stand back and see how the children deal with it themselves.

If I do need to step in I will verbalise the feelings involved ie "Tom looks quite cross because you took the hoop from him" "Did you want to play with it?" OK, let's ask Tom. encourage child to repeat this question. " Can I have the hoop when you are finished with it"? Inevitably the answer will be "YES" ( positive).

I'd say ( role modelling) Thank you Tom, and then to snatcher, (in a positive tone) "right what do you want to play while you wait?"

 

I start teaching this dialogue as soon as children start, at age 2 . The children soon get the hang of it and it is lovely to observe when they remember to ask. This also encourages children to learn that 'sharing' isn't about you have something for 5 minutes then it's another persons turn, it's more about when a child has finished with something that it is then their turn. The child with the item also learns to consider that someone is waiting.

 

I would hate to have time restrictions when using the computor, I wouldn't want to stop using it halfway through writing a post, because my "time was up".

 

When we ask children to do or not do certain things, we should also ask ourselves how we would feel if the same was asked of us.

 

 

Peggy

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I think the following came from a course a colleague once took (it may have been a Penny Tassoni but I'm

not sure!

You start each day with a basket of apples give them out before their stolen.

I am not convinced i have the exact wording but the principle is about giving positive attention before children feel the need to seek attention from you!

Sorry that is probably as clear as mud!

Bookworm.

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  • 4 months later...
Guest katylouise1984

My group really focus on feelings, they show great interest in MY feelings! They know what makes me happy and sad. I wonder if there is a way of using the praise tree idea, which is lovely, but calling it the 'Happy Tree' or something similar, any ideas?

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Peggy, your approach is quite similar to the High/Scope Problem Solving approach, which I like for those sort of situations. There's an article in August's EYE magazine by Pam Lafferty, the Director, called 'A Desire to Learn or a Desire to Please' that explains as clearly as I've ever seen it why High/Scope practitioners prefer to use encouragement rather than praise with children. It makes interesting reading!

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