What's your philosophy of discipline for an early childhood class?

Question

What's your philosophy of discipline for an early childhood class?

Answer 1

Children need routine and consistency---they need to know their rules and boundaries from the start (I use visual ruleboard), they need to know what "to do" as well as what "not to do" and they need to be told the 'why' to help them understand and follow the behaviour.

The dicipline depends on the behaviour:

-Physical: Child is removed from the area of 'attack' -usually they are sat at a table with an adult and have to 'quiet play' for a few minutes to calm down. The other child is seen to to ensure safety and emotional distress is checked. I usually tell the child what they did wrongand what to do next time (eg: if someone takes your toy come and tell me...rather than simply shouting "dont kick")

-Name calling-explain it was hurtful and we dont use those words...sometimes if 'crime' was serious they are taken to quiet area to chill out.

If something is very serious then an adult takes them out of the room for a time out-we are lucky we can do this because our door has large window so even when you take child out other adults can always see you.  The time out is never very long because of the age.

We also read a lot of emotion books esp if e've had a day with a lot of sharing issues to install empathy and discuss as a group appropriate and inappropriate behaviour!

Answer 2

time out is a no no.  Children need to be redirected, but teacher also needs to be consistent.  Make a classroom rules chart with pictures.

Answer 3

Time out because it isn't that the children are doing bad things on purpose and because they know it will hurt someone else, but because they get overwhelmed by the things going on around them and if they are at the age were they can't express themselves easily they get upset and tend to act out negatively.  A timeout will give the child a break from being overly stimulated and then they will be able to come down and come back to the group refreshed.

Answer 4

We work with the Tools of the Mind program and we don't even put them in time out, we put them in the Thinking Chair to have them think about what they have done and speak to them about it. We limit the time by their age ie: 4yrs old gets 4 min. extra. No child is bad, most times we just redirect. It's amazing to watch these kids perform tasks even our 5 & 6 year olds have problems with. Our kids now are writing their own first and last names, acknowledge their play plan and self regulate all on their own. I'm very proud of each of my students.

Answer 5

Many daycare centers are not even allowe dto use time out any more. Redirection is the current method

Answer 6

put in time out. you have to discipline or he will never grow up. he will be all over the place. you can spank him softly but not too hard