Discipline techniques?

Question

hello

I work with a child who is 6 years old in a grade 1 class. He likes to try and run the show around there. When he is told he needs to stop doing something he says just wait and continues to do what he has been asked to stop doing. For example, he pokes children when sitting in the listening area and when told to stop he says just wait and pokes them faster and faster. If you try and move him he begins to hit and tries to bite you. Another incident was he put his feet on his desk and I told him the desk was for paper and for us to put our lunch on and his feet belonged on the floor. He looked at me and said just wait, and put his feet back and started pounding his feet on the desktop. Does anyone have any ideas on how to deal with a child who likes to use "just wait" and keeps on going. I've tried the you have to the count of 3 method and he just looks at me and does it more and faster. I'm lost on ideas! Please help.

Answer 1

Tell him "NO WAIT" and make sure you sound pissed when you say it and stare at him.  if he keeps doing it send him to the principles office.  after a while the principle you and the parents will probably have a discussion about him and ultimately it will be up to the parents to rid him of the habit.  But you do not need him disrupting the learning of all the other students in the class room.

Answer 2

the best thing that worked for me was to get to the childs level and tell them when they hurt others it also hurts you to see him hurt the other students. It normally work some children even broke into tears, it breaks their little heart more to know that it hurt you and that you mean it by being eye level with the child. The other thing that may help is to try differnt one on one activitys w the student .Try to talk to him one on one and see how he is feeling something could be going on at home or he could feel very left out. Every once in a while a child just needs a hug from someone outside of his family. good luck and i hope it works for you.

Answer 3

If this child is acting like this at such an early age. I would be looking into his parents. You definitely need to have an intervention with them and the director/dean of your school. He may be in some sort of psychological pain/ neglect. He and the parents need to be aware that there are rules in the classroom, so that everyone has a great experience. The paddle never ruined me or anyone I ever knew. Good Luck, I will keep you in my prayers !!

Answer 4

As a childcare assistant i have come across children with such problems.

The key is to focus on the positive behaviour rather than on the negative.

The best technique i can suggest is to implement a reward system for the child. Create a star chart and set a goal for the child that is not too high, for example five stars. Ask the child to choose their own reward, something that they enjoy, it could be something as small as a sticker or in my case the child picked that he wanted a jatz cracker.

The key is AS SOON AS the child demonstrates a desirable behaviour, for example listening to instruction, reward it! The child might earn a reward 18 times in the day but keep going! This means the chart is working. If he shows an undesirable behaviour, for example not listening when he is asked to stop something, remove a star.

Because the child has chosen their own reward it will give them incentive, and because they can SEE the results as their stars are rewarded they will continue the desirable behaviours. Create a chart that the child can add to himself. We had a laminated chart where the child was able to colour in the stars as he earned them with whiteboard marker.

This technique can show results for many many behavioural problems!

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

If the child has a need for control, let's brainstorm what he can control.  He can pass out milk at snack time, he can be line leader sometimes, He can decide whether to zip his jacket at recess.  

As the teacher you get to control keeping everyone safe. Poking his neighbor at circle is not safe, it is distracting and disruptive and not safe in a close circle.  

Take a quiet moment with him and present this problem. Respectfully, ask his opinion on how to solve it. He is the expert on his body, right?

Maybe he can choose rewards or consequences for behaviors. But he might tell you that Jenny's pink shirt looks so soft it's hard not to touch it or his legs get crampy when he's trying to sit at a desk. Perhaps he can sit elsewhere? Perhaps he can ask Jenny's permission to touch her soft shirt after circle.

Invite him to join your team, together figure out the why and a solution will follow.  ...and keep your eyes and ears open for disability flags.

Answer 6

Remove the child from the situation as it is happening without hesitation.  Verbal reprimand with a child who has controlled the show for sometime is difficult "times up"  is effective as the child becomes aware that there are no second chances.  Your out,  whether it is a trip to the office to sit outside of the principles office or outside of the classroom,  he will find his time spent away from his peers rather unfofilling and if he wishes to partisipate he must cooperate.  The sticker program is helpful in building the selfesteem of children who are always on the hot seat.  If they earn say 5 stars in a day than they are able to take the attendence down to the office.  Small tasks that recognize their value in a group of many helps and it also a way that they are able to verbalize that why they are at the office is not see the principle but because they earned the right as a 5 star student to be there.  The child will develope a healthy respect  for themselves and others with the right amount of patients.  Good luck

Answer 7

Simple, tell him to stop one time if he doesn't listen put him out of your class. Make him stand in the hall just outside of your class. If this doesn't work, don't let him participate in any of the fun activities for the rest of the day and or week. This should work if not send him to the principles office and call his parents.

Let me know if this works.

I use to act out in class only when certain kids who had to mess with everybody messed with me. I use to beat them like they stole something very valuable of mine.

The teach would just send me to the corner, I just played with all of the surrounding toys. I only stopped when the teacher brought my aunt into class with me for a couple of weeks. Threw those weeks I noticed my grandmother knew what I did in school and disciplined me with a ruler or switch and when my parents arrived the disciplined me with a belt. Needless to say I stopped acting out in class.

Answer 8

Children like this can be tough.  They want to have the control over the situation.  This child needs to understand that what he is doing is not acceptable in the classroom.  You can remove him from the classroom but then he might get worse because he is loosing the control that he has.  If this doesn't work I would then remove him from the classroom or from the activity that is going on.  When he says that he will stop in a min. just tell him it is time to stop now.  If he continues to not listen, ask him if he needs help stopping or can he do it by himself.  most of the time this works because children do not like to get help from adults.  If this doesn't work then you need to remove him from the situation and tell him why you have done this.  When you are asking him to stop make sure you are telling him why you want him to stop.

Answer 9

You are going to  have to mete out a punishment and make good on it. Also, have you contacted his parents? You can tell him how disruptive and unfair his behavior is to the rest of the class. He is old enough to understand this concept. Try time out or standing in the corner of the room... or deny him an activity until he earns the reward of interacting with the rest of the class. He is obviously looking for attention or ways to get out of the standard routine and rhythm of the class.

Answer 10

I taught kindergarten and preschool for many years.  It may not be the child's fault. He may have a chemical imbalance in his brain. Which is the result of these behaviors. I am not sure if you are the teacher or a Pharaoh professional.  

Schools have physiologists who can do some testing with the child.  Some children are attention deficit and needs meds to help them focus.

Before any testing can be done, you need to get permission from the parents.  Once the testing is done, it will be determined if further testing is needed by an outside resource that can prescribe some medication.

Children who are attention deficit. Do need to learn to control there actions on their own. They need to be held accountable for what they are doing.  

In my experience counting does not work. That only gives him three more seconds to continue on with what he is doing.  He also know he is getting attention.

For now the best thing you can do is remove the child from the situation. I do not believe in putting a child in a corner in time out in a classroom. That only ridicules the child in front of others.

You have to be careful how you handle the child.  You need to take him by the hand and remove him from the room. Once he is out of the room. Give him time to calm down.  Then tell him he can go back in the room when he is ready to listen.

It is a tough job. But from my experience the child should be tested.

If it was my child being poked by a pencil I would be upset.