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Summarize Early Childhood Guidance Principles

Guidance is positive discipline. The word discipline comes from the Latin root
discipulus, meaning pupil (American Heritage Dictionary, 1992). Simply put,
guidance teaches. Guidance, according to Dan Gartrell (2010), is not punishing
children for making mistakes; it is helping children to learn from their
mistakes. Guidance is not disciplining children for having problems they
cannot solve, but assisting children to learn to solve their problems. Friendly
humor is important in good guidance, and so are these three considerations:
(a) When using guidance, teachers are firm when needed, but firm and
friendly, not firm and harsh. (b) Teachers who use guidance do well to think
of a childs age in terms of months rather than years. They understand that
young children are just beginning to learn difficult life skills that may take a
lifetime to master. (c) A partnership between the teacher, the child, and the
family is necessary for guidance to be effective. Discipline can be defined as
the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using
punishment to correct disobedience. Punishment can be simply put as the
consequence for a misbehavior, a penalty for wrong doing.
Positive and negative strategies effect the childs development. When
limits are consistent, children know what is expected (rather than guessing
what they are supposed to do), and over time it makes meeting expectations
automatic. The expectations for punishment are rarely clear; they can be
unrealistic, and they can often be harmful, hurtful, and arbitrary. Taking time
to know the child, be honest, be kind, show respect, make your non-verbal
and verbal messages agree, redirect, use humor, allow for natural
consequences, use logical consequences, use I-messages, work with the
children, establish one way communication, be an active listener, evaluate
your environment, make chores games, give choices, make clear statements,
minimize adult-imposed transitions. These are all ways to help guide
childrens behaviors. A key way to achieving this firm, fair, and friendly
quest is for adults to keep reminding themselves of the longevity factor. The
guidance we give children now will influence their actions in the future. Our
guidance builds a fundamental foundation that will help children develop a
strong, healthy self-esteem and independence. Adults must be sure to
model the desired behavior around the children they teach. To be successful
models, teachers should be aware of their emotions and feelings; they do not
want to compound a problem by their reaction. To not overwhelm children
with your behavior remember to be consistent, have realistic expectations,
be an active observer, try to prevent as much misbehavior as possible, and
use indirect guidance to set the stage of expected behaviors in your

classroom. Remembering the guidance ladder will help you remember how
to how to handle behaviors exploited by children. The steps of the guidance
ladder are ignoring behavior, active listening, reinforcement, redirection &
distraction, giving choices, setting limits, problem solving, natural & logical
consequences, time-out, and physical intervention. They are going to be
times when you need to physically intervene to protect a child from
themselves or from another child from a harmful situation. During all
situations it is important to stay calm, keep your voice and actions to imply
the same thing, have eye contact with the child, and try to observe any
situation you feel may turn in a negative way, be there to intervene/distract
before it becomes violent. Observation is going to be key in molding and
guiding childrens behaviors. The ABC observation is going to play a huge
part in observing/studying the behaviors of the children.
Mistaken behavior is the concept that you can guide children to better social
emotional development. Misbehavior is still what children are considered in
the school systems today. They believe it is punishable behavior that they
need to correct. Mistaken behavior is when you realize the child has a goal
for their behaviors like attention getting, power, revenge seeking, and
displaying inadequacy. Usually pursued by the child in order, the four goals
represent inappropriate ways of seeking social acceptance. Harlow writes
about three levels of relational patterns, which differ in their openness to
experience, maturity, and their capacity to operate freely. Level three is a
strong-needs mistaken behavior, the rational pattern of a survivor. Children
showing this pattern likely have experienced an environment as a
dangerous and painful place. The children showing this pattern have no
control over their environment to change it. The children will most likely be
rigid, and exaggerated. Its used as a coping mechanism to protect
themselves. These children will not do well with change or new situations.
Level two is a socially influenced mistaken behavior, the rational pattern of
an adjustor. The children showing this pattern will have an increased ability
to adapt/adjust to situations. These children will want the teachers approval,
put off completing task to basically have someone else do it for them. These
children will be lacking in self-esteem and individuality. Level one is an
experimentation mistaken behavior, the rational pattern of an encounterer.
The children showing this pattern will be very open to situations, they are
fully engaged in the experiment of life, and are susceptible to mistaken
behaviors. These childrens behaviors will be natural or controlled mistaken
behaviors.
Licensing regulations pertaining to child care guidance are listed under
DCF 250.04 (2) Administration (e) #7 Child Guidance, including appropriate
ways to manage crying, fussing, or distraught children. (See appendix J
Resources List) Also DCF 250.07 Program (2) Child Guidance
(a) Each child family center shall provide positive guidance and redirection
for the children and shall set clearly specified limits for the children. A

provider shall help each child develop self-control, self-esteem, and


respect for the rights of others.
(b)If a provider uses time-out periods to deal with unacceptable behavior,
time-out periods may not exceed 5 minutes or be used for children
under age 3. Time-out procedures shall be included in the centers
written child guidance policy.
(c) Actions that may be psychologically, emotionally, or physically painful,
discomforting, dangerous or potentially injurious are prohibited.
Examples of prohibited actions include all of the following:
1. Spanking, hitting, pinching, shaking, slapping, twisting, throwing,
or inflicting any other form of corporal punishment on the child.
2. Verbal abuse, threats, or derogatory remarks about the child or
the childs family.
{Verbal abuse includes, but is not limited to profane, insulting, or coarse
language sometimes but not always delivered in a loud or threatening
manner or language which is ego deflating, causing loss of self-esteem.}
3. Physical restraint, binding, or tying the child to restrict the childs
movement or enclosing the child in a confined space such as a
closet, locked room, box, or similar cubical. See 250.03(23) for
definition of physical restraint. Physical restraint does not
include:
Briefly holding a child in order to calm or comfort the child.
Holding a childs hand or arm to escort the child from one
area to another.
Moving a disruptive child who is putting him/herself/others
in danger and is unwilling to leave the area when other
methods such as talking to the child have been
unsuccessful.
Intervening or breaking up a fight.
{If the child has an outburst that puts him/herself or another person in
danger of harm, the center has responsibility to protect the child and others
from danger. Once a child has an outburst, we recommend that the center
work with the parents to develop a plan to help manage the childs behavior
in a way that does not include the use of a physical restraint. Children may
not be confined in high chairs, cribs, and/or pack and plays to restrict the
childs movement.}
4. Withholding or forcing meals, snacks, or naps.
5. Actions that are cruel, aversive, humiliating, or frightening to the
child.
(d) A child may not be punished for lapses in toilet training.
We can teach the social-emotional skills children need to function as
healthy and productive adults in consistently positive ways. Punishment and
discipline shouldnt be used in the early childhood environment. Teachers of

guidance do realize these are lifelong goals and take continued practice to
manage them. We do have hope that the pendulum will once again swing to
the rational position of treating children as people with needs and feelings
that are not that different from adults.

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