ECCE: Five Strategies for Behaviour Management at Home and School
Behaviour in the most basic sense can be defined as an activity done in response to external or internal stimuli. Psychology tells us that behaviour is a reaction to changes in stimuli. The reason I am starting with a definition of behaviour is for us to realise that when we talk about behaviour change or management we are essentially talking about the change in stimuli (internal or external) around children.
Think about two-year-old children, who have recently started experiencing a world of which they can make sense of. They are constantly being fed new information about the world, new people, new vocabulary, and new environments. Almost everything around them is new, this stream of information, often unstructured, can easily overwhelm anyone.
Foundation Stage and concern of Parents and Teachers
Parents and teachers have often struggled with this ever-changing and always curious behaviour of their children because the focus has always been on the reaction instead of the stimuli. We are all aware that children grow rapidly before the age of six years. This growth period is an important time for every child because their brain is laying the foundation of their neural network which will define their entire life. This age group is not just essential for the language or physical development of a child but also their attitude and mindset which will directly affect their behaviour going forward, it’s at this time that behaviour management becomes a very important part of parenting or teaching tool-kit.
Now that we have understood what behaviour is and the importance of keeping behaviour at the centre of our parenting or teaching practices, let’s try to understand behaviour management. Behaviour management can be defined as a way to redirect or restructure how a child reacts to a change in stimuli. In the early years, a well-structured behaviour management system can help nurture strong resilience in a child and support parents to create a well-structured system to ensure that their child’s innate curiosity can be leveraged positively to strengthen their holistic development.
Thus, behaviour management plays an important role in early childhood development, while several strategies can be used for behaviour management, we should be very careful in employing these strategies since we are working with very young children and fragile minds. Before I get into the strategies that we can use for behaviour management, let us debunk some myths like, Punishments are important because they teach children discipline and responsibility.
A lot of us grew up with punishments for not following the rules, we all believed that this was the best way to ensure that children stay in line and learn the responsibility of being in a social setting. Punishment can be defined as a consequence to reduce undesirable behaviour. While consequences can be a good tool, there needs to be proper scaffolding for the consequences. Punishments with severe consequences or restrictions may cause the “don’t get caught” mindset in the adolescent years.
Behaviour can be enforced
Thinking that we can enforce any kind of behaviour in a child doesn’t help anyone. Behaviour is learned, usually by mimicking adults which means that setting clear routines and rewarding positive behaviour works better, having a list of positive behaviours and responses for situations will yield better results than having a not-to-do list for a child.
While we are talking about behaviour, it is important to understand the difference between behaviour and temperament. In my experience, I have often observed that parents and sometimes even teachers confuse temperament as behaviour, “My child throws a lot of tantrums.” Throwing a tantrum is a reaction to stimuli but the frequency can be because of the temperament of the child. Temperament is how children respond to the world.
There are three major qualities on which you can identify a child’s temperament: Reactivity, Self-regulation, and Sociability. You can describe a child’s temperament by scaling them between low to high in these three categories. It is important to understand a child’s temperament because a good behaviour management cycle will keep a temperament at the centre, make it contextual, root it in local traditions or routines and make children an active part of the process.
While I will be sharing some strategies that can help create a behaviour management cycle, there is no one solution, each strategy needs to be contextualised to a child’s temperament and needs.
We will try to understand probable causes in two different contexts,
- Classrooms
- At home
Using these contexts we will conclude with five strategies for behaviour management.
“The child shows bad behaviour responses during a learning or guided space in the classroom”
Behaviour challenges in a classroom can be due to learning differences or deficits in a child, sometimes children react or “misbehave” because they feel lost, unfamiliar processes, instructions, or language may cause children to be lost, while the temperament of a child plays a crucial role in understanding how they will respond, we can identify the root cause and make our lessons more inclusive.
The child shows bad behaviour at home
Children often use behaviour as a form of communication, they may be imitating a behaviour or may want attention. These behaviours will continue to persist as long as they are getting rewarded for them, this behaviour change is a very important time to nudge the correct behaviour responses in a child.
Strategies to make a strong behaviour management plan:
1. Setting Clear Expectations
Setting clear expectations for behaviour, for any plan to be effective the expectations from a child should be very clear when a child knows exactly what good behaviour is it becomes easy for them to follow the rules. The expectations should be action-oriented and as specific as possible for eg, saying “be fair to everyone” may not have as much of an impact as saying “give everyone equal turns for this game”. Just setting expectations may not be enough in some situations, in these cases you should model out the exact behaviour that you want the child to show.
2. Being Consistent and developing Routine
Be consistent, and make routines and structures, consistency helps children build confidence, and the predictability of routines will make children feel safer and in control of their actions. Unpredictability can cause anxiety that will produce bad behaviour, use a visual schedule that can be reinforced routinely so that children can start predicting the outcome of each action and refer to when they are transitioning between activities, for eg. “wash your hands before and after the meal”. This consistency should be aligned with the schools or daycare centres and home, if the rewards and praise are for conflicting actions the child is going to be confused which will lead to bad behaviour.
3. Praise and Reward for Good Behaviour
Praise and reward good behaviour, positive reinforcement in early years is the greatest tool anyone can use, studies have shown that children learn faster through positive reinforcement than consequences. A praise or reward system will help children learn the right behaviour actions, a praise/reward should be specific and must clearly state the action that led to the praise, for example, “Good job keeping your toys back in the box.”
4. Using Paly to Direct and Teach Positive Behaviour
Use play to direct and teach behaviour, play-based learning can help children develop creativity, and both guided and free play can help children develop self-regulation and sociability, these skills are essential for how a child responds to any given situation.
5. Asking Questions to understand the Root Cause
Identify the root cause by asking questions, children want to be understood when they show signs of bad behaviour, always spend time asking them questions, be direct and clear, and give few probable answers as options so it is easy for a child to answer “Why did you throw the book? You don’t want to colour right now? Is colouring this picture a little difficult right now?”
Identifying a root cause can not only help you solve the problem at its core, and it also teaches a very essential skill to children, to communicate their emotions clearly and specifically.
This can be concluded that behaviour management is one of the most important skills for any child, it helps them build resilience, makes them feel safer and in control, and helps teachers or parents create a harmonious environment at school or home.
(Akhand Pratap Singh is currently working as a Project Lead with CSF in Uttar Pradesh. With a background in the Teach For India fellowship and over a decade of diverse experience, he has worked extensively on Early childhood development, teacher training, program implementation, and monitoring. Before entering the education sector, he spent five years in operations. Outside of work, Akhand enjoys reading comics and mentoring aspiring young entrepreneurs.)
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