We Are All In This Together: Supporting Children's Social Emotional Development and Addressing Challenging Behavior

N

5

Teachers; Administrators

Teaching Methods; Young Children; Emotional Development; Behavior Problems; Social Development; Child Development; Child Behavior; School Policy; Educational Environment; Program Development; Behavior Modification; Teacher Expectations of Students; Classroom Environment; Student Needs; Faculty Development

0164-8527

Many families of children with challenging behaviors have experienced multiple changes in child care because of their child's behavior. While this is disruptive for families, it has even more serious consequences for children. For these children, consistency and continuity is critical to their long term outcomes. In order to build the capacity of programs to meet the needs of children with social emotional needs and challenging behaviors, an approach is needed that includes not only training and support for teachers but administrative supports and policies. In this article, the author describes five important steps for building supports within programs to address the social emotional needs and challenging behaviors of all young children: (1) adopt a philosophy that focuses on ensuring all children will be successful in the program; (2) develop program-wide expectations for children's behavior and be proactive about promoting the expectations and sharing the information with families; (3) ensure that environments are designed to promote children's social emotional development and prevent challenging behavior; (4) develop a plan for addressing the needs of children with ongoing, persistent challenging behavior; and (5) provide systematic training, coaching in the classroom, and other supports for teachers related to promoting social emotional development and addressing challenging behavior. These steps can be adapted to meet the unique needs of any setting. (Contains 2 figures.)

ERIC

14

2007

EJ769524