As an early childhood educator, it is important to remember that children are constantly learning and making mistakes along the way. Whether they are exploring their environments in unsafe ways, having negative social interactions with their peers, or struggling to express their emotions in acceptable ways, using positive guidance as a response to these situations is vital to helping children learn self-control and develop healthy self-regulation and social-emotional skills.
Positive guidance is a framework that parents, educators, and other caregivers can establish to help children learn acceptable social practices and ways to express their feelings. This can be done both directly and indirectly.
For example, educators can incorporate positive guidance indirectly into their classroom management by choosing an effective layout, establishing consistent routines, and setting a list of classroom rules for all children to follow. Direct guidance builds on these rules and routines by focusing on an individual child and helping them learn appropriate behaviors through verbal instruction and expectations, rational consequences for negative actions, redirection, and problem-solving.
It is important to note that, while consequences are a key part of positive guidance, punishment should never be. Punishment involves caregivers inflicting penalties on children for their mistakes and showing hostility or frustration, leading to children feeling guilty or scared.
Implementing reasonable consequences, on the other hand, focuses on showing love and concern to children when they act out, helping to correct their actions and model appropriate behavior. This helps children feel secure and teaches them healthy self-regulation techniques.
Using positive guidance is a crucial part of early childhood development because it doesn’t just focus on correcting children’s behavior at the moment. It also promotes future growth and teaches key concepts like self-control and responsibility and how to make thoughtful choices.
Punishment or verbal communication that insults or belittles children is more likely to cause them to view their caregivers negatively, which can inhibit learning and teach them to be unkind toward others or themselves.
Proper guidance can help preserve children’s self-esteem and dignity and can even help uncover more significant problems when responding to children who are displaying challenging behavior, such as problems they are experiencing at home, underlying health issues, or social, emotional, or developmental challenges.
Here are a few positive guidance strategies early childhood educators can use in the classroom to help demonstrate and teach appropriate behavior for young children.
When giving instructions, opt for positive language over negative language. Frame requests in a way that guides children to the behavior you want them to do instead of the behavior you don’t want them to do. For example, use precise instructions like, “Walk,” “Use your inside voice,” or “Sit in your chair” as opposed to “Don’t run,” “Don’t yell,” or “Don’t climb on the table.”
Even if your words are kind, the tone you use may communicate the wrong message to children. Avoid harsh or loud tones when offering guidance. Instead, use a soft or pleasant tone, while still being firm in your instructions. You can also try a silly tone or sing instructions to really get children’s attention in a fun way.
Offering children the opportunity to make their own choices helps them feel a sense of control and gives them a chance to practice making good decisions. This strategy is best used when following instructions. For example, when you say, “It’s time to clean up,” you can offer children a choice like, “Do you want to start with the books or the blocks?” Phrasing your instructions with opportunities for children to decide how to comply can reduce their resistance to directions.
Redirecting behavior can help shift children’s focus from undesirable behavior to more positive expressions of their emotions. For example, if a child is hitting other children because they are angry, you can offer them a safer alternative such as hitting a pillow or screaming into a stuffed animal. (Note: While this technique can defuse tense moments, it is still important to get to the root cause of any challenging behavior.)
Knowing when to offer guidance is just as important as knowing how to offer guidance. If a child is in the middle of an outburst and is overly frustrated or angry, it is helpful to wait a few minutes for them to calm down so that your instructions will connect with them and help them learn from the situation. Alternatively, if a child acts out by hitting or taking things from others, responding with immediate guidance is the best course of action, as it helps children better relate negative consequences to their actions.
Every child is different, and your guidance for each child should be as unique as they are. That’s why it is important to observe and document children’s activities as much as possible to understand their specific needs, interests, and abilities. Tools like brightwheel's daily activity report can help, as it enables educators to easily record activities, share real-time updates, and create learning portfolios for every child in their classroom.
Creating a positive guidance policy and effective behavior management strategy for your classroom can go a long way to reducing disruptions and minimizing challenging behavior.
Positive guidance is an essential technique for helping children develop important skills like self-regulation and social-emotional awareness. Creating policies and strategies for your classroom that consistently promote positive guidance can help children feel supported and cared for, even as they experience consequences for their negative actions. When used consistently, this type of instruction can help children learn self-control and responsibility and how to make thoughtful decisions.
