Intervening Early

Promoting Positive Behaviour in Young Children

Nicky Hutchinson, Hilary Smith

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136601811
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Behavioural Management

When the behaviour of young children causes concern, practitioners often find it difficult to identify exactly what the child's needs are or how to focus their support most effectively. This book helps meet this challenge. Its inclusive approach seeks to promote positive behaviour in all children. The book includes:

• a straightforward assessment process to identify children who need additional support
• practical strategies to encourage positive behaviour and promote emotional well being
• informative case studies that show how solutions work in practice.

This book is an ideal resource for all early years practitioners working across a variety of settings for young children.

PART I

Screening schedule

Using the Screening Schedule

Adults working in early years settings may use this screening schedule to help them identify children who are causing concern, and to focus on their specific needs.

The schedule consists of two parts:

  Whole group assessment (page 3)

This should be completed for all the children in the setting after they have been attending for four to six weeks. By this time they should be more settled and adults will have greater knowledge of each individual.

  Individual assessment (pages 4–9)

This describes aspects of each skill area in greater depth to enable the adult to assess the child’s needs in more detail. It should be completed for children whose needs have been highlighted from the whole group assessment. Once completed, this assessment is designed to be used in conjunction with Part II, Ideas for support.

You may find it helpful to reassess individual children after 10 to 12 weeks of using interventions from Part II.

Whole group assessment

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE

1.  Please read the whole Schedule first in order to familiarise yourself with the categories.

2.  In order to gain the most objective picture of the children, it is advisable to complete the assessment with a colleague.

3.  Put an X in any column where, in your professional judgement in comparison with the ‘average’ child in your setting, you have concerns.

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Setting: ……………………………………….. Completed by: …………………………………………………………………….

Date of Assessment: ………………………………………………………….

SKILL AREAS

Individual assessment

Use this assessment for individual children whose needs have been highlighted from the whole group screening.

On a scale of 1 to 5, where:

1 = No concerns; 2 = Low levels of concern; 3 = Moderate levels of concern;

4 = High levels of concern; 5 = Extreme levels of concern

please rate the child’s current skill level.

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Emerging sense of self

Self in relation to early years setting

Feelings

Relationships with adults

Relationships with children

PART II

Ideas for support

1 An adult’s sense of self-worth has a direct influence on the way children value themselves. Ways to make your setting a positive and supportive place for adults might include:

making the staffroom comfortable and welcoming,

having treats such as a staff ‘fun’ day,

greeting everyone each day,

making time to listen to each other,

setting aside time in meetings to celebrate good news and personal events, successes/achievements.

Develop and maintain a positive atmosphere in your setting so that both adults and children feel recognised, valued and supported.

2 Use a wide range of strategies for acknowledging all levels of effort and involvement. Ensure that your positive comments cover the full range of learning experiences. Acknowledge a child’s efforts to help a friend as much as their efforts to produce a model.

Different children will respond to different approaches, so use as many strategies as you can. Some settings use rewards to encourage appropriate behaviours. If you choose to use rewards change them frequently to keep them fresh, and share ideas with colleagues. Here are some examples:

Find ways to acknowledge the smallest of improvements/achievements. This could be as simple as a smile or a touch on the shoulder.

In addition to ackno...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Part I Screening schedule
• Part II Ideas for support
• References
• Recommended resources
• Appendix 1 Activity badges
• Appendix 2 Behaviour policy
• Appendix 3 Problem solving and conflict resolution
• Appendix 4 Circle time