Managing Behaviour
Managing Behaviour
As a registered childminder it is my duty to keep children safe from harm when in my care. It is important to set boundaries from the onset and to behave as a role model for the children. All children and their adults are happily welcomed into my property where they will be treated with care, friendliness and courtesy. I aim to provide an environment where everything is safe and fun, children will be taught to share, take turns and socialise among fellow peers. By doing so children will be able to flourish and develop social skills that will help them be accepted in society.
All children have the right to be cared for in a happy environment; therefore it is important to ensure that all children know what is expected of them what the boundaries are.
In order to achieve this I have some house rules which set reasonable and appropriate limits to help manage the behaviour of the children.
I help the children understand my house rules, which are realistic and I am consistent in the enforcing of them.
I will ensure that:
• what I expect from the children is reasonable and achievable, depending on their age and ability
• I make myself clear giving an explanation of what behaviour was unacceptable and why
• I am a good role model
• I listen to what the children have to say
• I reward good behaviour
• physical punishment or threat of physical punishment is not used, including smacking
• physical restraint is not used unless it is necessary to prevent damage to themselves; other people or property. Parents will be informed should this happen
There are several ways to deal with a child who is misbehaving and I will use different ones depending on the age/stage of ability of the child and the situation:
However all children will misbehave at sometime.
I have developed several different strategies on how to deal with a child misbehaving and use different ones depending on the age/stage of ability of the child and the situation:
* Distraction. Remove the child from the situation and give them an alternative activity.
Ignore. Depending on the situation I may ignore the bad behaviour as I feel it is being done to get a reaction.
* Discuss with Child. If the child is able to understand I will discuss their behaviour and try and get them to appreciate the consequences of their actions on others. I inform them that it is their behaviour that I do not like not them.
* Time Out. Removing the child from the activity and sitting them quietly for a few minutes.
* Removal of treats.
I will never smack, shake or hurt your child. I will not humiliate your child.
If a child misbehaves I will discus this with you by either texting, email or by ringing you, Some children can become upset if the incident is retold in front of them. I will also inform you of how the matter was dealt with. In most cases the matter will not require any further action, punishing a child hours after an incident achieves nothing but confusion and upset.
There may be times when I will need to physically intervene or restrain a child to prevent or stop an incident taking place, this could be when one child is, has or is about to scratch, bite or hit another child or run into a road etc.
I will explain to the child, according to their age and understanding that their actions are unacceptable behaviour. For younger child this may be by my tone of voice and facial expressions rather than lots of words.
It may be necessary for me to exclude the child from an activity and use time out, I will also encourage the child to apologise to the other child and work with them to develop strategies to help them deal with the reasons why the incident took place or was about to take place.
I discuss with parents and children and work together to overcome any issues. I find that by including the child into these discussions helps the child to understand that it is their behaviour that is not liked and not them as a person. By supporting the child in this way often alleviates the negative behaviour.
House Rules
House Rules
Our house rules are based on what behaviour I find unacceptable in our setting and
are based on guiding children away from doing things that are:
Dangerous, hurtful or offensive to others (children or adults)
Activities that become dangerous to themselves,
Will make a child feel unwelcome or unaccepted
The damage to other people’s belongings and my own
Our house rules are as follows
No fighting, hitting, biting scratching to other children
No refusing to share
No destruction of play things, books or other things in my house
No running about in the house
No climbing on furniture
No touching electrical equipment or other dangerous objects
Not holding hands, running into the road when going out
No swearing and using ‘rude’ words
No going upstairs into my family’s own rooms
No making a mess and/or refusing to clear up
No name calling or excluding from play because of other children’s racial
origins, cultural background, gender or disability
No Guns
Our expectations are flexible though as I have to be able to adjust them
according to the stage of development reached by individual children.