ECE 313
Donna Thompson
Final Paper
Karree FahOctober 18, 2010
Behaviors and Theories
They are many theories, concepts, and local resources that apply to the early childhood classroom and the child’s family. Among these things it also includes behaviors that need to be encouraged in a pre-school setting and at home with parents. In this paper I will hopefully answer the following question: How do educators/parents encourage desired behaviors from pre-school aged children in both the child care and home setting? And I will also list and explain strategies for teaching these behaviors to children and how parents can reinforce these behaviors at home.
The five behaviors that I will be discussing that need to be encouraged in the pre-school ; home setting are as followed: a. Attachment b. Aggression c. Problem-Solving Skills d. Building Self-help Skills and e. Self-Esteem. Attachment is a lasting emotional relationship that begins to develop in infancy and serves to tie the infant to one or more people in his or her life. Many parents do not realize that the first early attachment sets the tone for a child?s development and defines some of the issues that he or she will carry into adulthood. The strategies for teaching parents how to use behaviors at home for attachment are to stress that attachment contributes to cognitive development in infants. When children feel secure, they are freer to explore the environment around them, and that education is social-emotional development
and the basis of that is attachment comes from a synchronous relationship,
Behaviors and Theories
which grow from a number of synchronous interactions. As a pre-school provider it is important that you express to the parents that children can have attachment to both the parent and the caregiver that it is not a competition , and you must work together to better the child?s education. Encourage the parents to have a vision for the child?s future, just as they have the knowledge of the past. Also you should help the family and also become close to family as well as the child to make sure that the child is not receiving neglect from either source The theorist that was responsible for this was John Bowlby (1969;1973), a researcher noted for his attachment theory. He studied children separated from their parents while in the hospital, which was common practice at the time because children are easier to work with when parents aren?t ?in the way.? Bowlby found that separation from family can be devastating to children?s development and mental health, even if the professional care and medical procedures take care of their physical problems. He did the classic work on attachment and hospitalization, which made a difference in how doctors and hospitals treat the parent/child relationship today. Medical personnel no longer exclude parents from their children?s presence in the hospital. We know now about attachment and hospitalization; we are still learning about attachment and education.
The strategies for teaching parents how to use behaviors at home for Aggression, is to educate them on the behavior of aggression which would include: The child will repeat aggressive behavior if he/she was rewarded for
Behavior and Theories
this behavior in the past. So be careful as a parent what you reward your child for. Aggression in children could be that the behavior is the result of bottled-up emotions or the behavior might stem from a physical source, or from watching others get what they want through aggression. Aggression can come from an extreme defensiveness. The parent and teacher can help children clarify situations, and explore alternatives to aggression. As parents and teachers we should both show firmness and empathy. And take a problem-solving attitude rather than a power play towards the child?s aggression. Way back in 1975, Barclay Martin reviewed 27 studies on the effects of harsh punishment and concluded that children were likely to store up frustration from being punished and vent it later, using the violence that was used on them. The message regarding avoiding using aggression to deal with aggression is still today.
Among behaviors, problem-solving behaviors are a very important one for a child. Learning problem solving techniques will help the child to solve problem though-out his/her lifetime. Strategies for teaching parents how to use behaviors at home for problem solving skills, is teaching them problem solving methods,
The General Problem Solver specifies two sets of thinking processes associated with the problem solving processes, understanding processes and search processes. Another popular problem solving model, the IDEAL problem solver (Branford ; Stein, 1984) describes problem solving as a uniform process of Identifying potential problems, Defining and representing the problem,
Behavior and Theories
Exploring possible strategies, Acting on those strategies, and Looking back and evaluating the effects of those activities. Gick (1986) synthesized these and other problem solving models (Greeno, 1978) into a simplified model of the problem-solving process, including the processes of constructing a problem representation, searching for solutions, and implementing and monitoring solutions. Although descriptively useful, these problem-solving models conceive of all problems as equivalent, articulating a generalized problem-solving procedure. These information-processing conceptions of problem solving assume that the same processes applied in different contexts yield the similar results. The culmination of this activity was an attempt to articulate a uniform theory of problem solving (Smith, 1991).4
as well as teaching the children to become resilient by teaching them problem solving. In doing this you must give children responsibilities, talk with children about their environment, and spend time playing games such as matching, words, and reading to the children. The General Problem Solver specifies two sets of thinking processes associated with the problem solving processes, understanding processes and search processes. Another popular problem solving model, the IDEAL problem solver (Branford ; Stein, 1984) describes problem solving as a uniform process of Identifying potential problems, Defining and representing the problem, Exploring possible strategies, Acting on those strategies, and looking back and evaluating the effects of those activities. Gick (1986) synthesized these and other problem solving models (Greeno, 1978) into
Behavior and Theories
a simplified model of the problem-solving process, including the processes of constructing a problem representation, searching for solutions, and implementing and monitoring solutions. Although descriptively useful, these problem-solving models conceive of all problems as equivalent, articulating a generalized problem-solving procedure. These information-processing conceptions of problem solving assume that the same processes applied in different contexts yield the similar results. The culmination of this activity was an attempt to articulate a uniform theory of problem solving (Smith, 1991).
Self-help skills for children are very important. Some children have developmental milestone delays in this area because the parents will not allow the child to do things for him/her self. Parents whose primary goal is to establish and keep connections may have little concern about teaching their children self-help skills, so it is important that pre-school teacher?s inform the parent?s of this.
Listed below are some of the strategies for teaching parents how to use behaviors at home for building self-help skills. Try to inform parents of how important the developmental milestones and if they don?t let their pre-school child do things for their self that they may have delays, so let them feed their self, drop things, and learn from things, even though they may get dirty, or fall, they will be o.k. Remind the parents that how the adults respond to this and to the exploring behavior will determine some extent the child?s adult behavior. Remember that it?s important as a family-support person that you
Behavior and Theories
not get into arguments. So, work on your relationship with the family and practice good communication. Always encourage parents to let children feed their self, even if they make a mess and encourage parent to potty train children when the child is ready. That not doing this is just hurting the child, and is not helping the child by letting them grow up and do things on their own.
Self esteem in a child is also important, it will relate to how and what the child sees themselves, and can determine how the child may turn out. Some strategies for teaching parents how to use behaviors at home for self- esteem includes: always make the child feel important and wanted. Never put the child down with negativity all the time. This will make a child feel like they have no sense of worth and can not do anything to please anyone. Always set and recognize realistic goals. Remember to show interest in your preschooler’s work and focus on their effort, not the mistake. Parents need to remember that children follow their parent’s example when it comes to placing value.
Parents and teacher most work on strategies together to get the child to understand what behavior is expected out of him/her. Some of the strategies for behaviors in children the parents and teachers can work together and encourage these behaviors at home and at pre-school by being consistent both at home and school. Set up an appropriate environment for the child to interact in. Let the environment provide the limits, and model appropriate behavior so that the child is not over whelmed with the environment. Redirect
Behavior and Theories
energy, and provide physical control when needed. For example, if a child has a lot of energy set aside a place indoor or outdoor for the child to be able to run and jump to work out some of his/her stored up energy, but let the child this is the only place that you can run and jump and not get hurt or hurt some one in doing this. Teach appropriate expression of feelings. Let the child know that it is alright for them to get mad, or sad, or etc, that everyone goes though these emotions and we just have to
try and handle it this way, by crying or saying I am mad, don?t hit pinch, etc. Although it is hard for a parent, the parent and teacher must let the child learn that children have to experience the consequences of their actions. This way the child will know that for every action follows a consequence, sometimes good and sometime bad. As parents and teachers we have to learn to ignore misbehavior that is designed to attract attention, and to teach pro-social behavior. Always remember to use time-out appropriately and reward desired behavior, and always meet the needs of the child and give feedback. As parents and teachers it is very important that both keep consistency that the child understands and won?t be confused.
Some community resources for parent and children include: Early Head start, and Head start, Preschool, Early Intervention Programs, WIC, and Family Recourse Network.
With the help and consistency of parents and teachers, they will be able to observe all behaviors good and bad and get the help that the child needs. Also, give the child a better education.
