How can teachers help young children learn expected behaviors?
Page 1: Preventing Challenging Behavior in Young Children
Challenging behaviors—those that interrupt instruction and negatively impact the learning environment—are common in early childhood environments. Yet early childhood educators identify challenging behaviors as one of the most difficult aspects of their jobs and the one area they feel the least prepared for. To be successful, educators must be able to prevent and respond to challenging behaviors. Fortunately, these behaviors often can be prevented through universal teaching practices or preventive practices that are designed to benefit all children in the classroom. One powerful preventive practice involves establishing clear behavior expectations and rules and systematically teaching and encouraging children to follow them. This practice can have a significant impact on children’s behavior and help classrooms function more smoothly. More specifically, it helps:
- Create a common ground for how children and adults are expected to treat each other
- Build a strong classroom community
- Promote physical and emotional safety
- Facilitate the development of children’s confidence and competence as they grow
In the first interview, Mary Louise Hemmeter provides an overview of what teachers can do to prevent challenging behaviors in young children. Next, Erica Roy discusses the benefits of clear behavior expectations and rules for students and educators.
Mary Louise Hemmeter, PhD
Nicholas Hobbs Chair
in Special Education and Human Development
Vanderbilt University
(time: 1:26)
Transcript: Mary Louise Hemmeter, PhD
So the first thing we tell teachers about challenging behavior is to make sure that they are doing everything they can to prevent problem behavior. And so with really young children, with preschool-age children, most of their problem behavior can be prevented either by how we design their environments, how we teach them routines, how we teach them expectations, how we provide predictability and consistency in their day, or through teaching them social skills and emotional competencies that they can use to get their needs met in place of using problem behavior to get their needs met. Most of the time, challenging behavior in young children is related to not following directions or not doing what people want you to do, teachers or parents. We think by having behavior expectations that tell children what you expect them to do, you’re being proactive about teaching them the expectations, reinforcing those expectations, rather than telling them what not to do when they engage in a problem behavior. We really see behavior expectations as a way to promote the skills you want to see, and by doing that, you automatically prevent some of the problem behavior.
Transcript: Erica Roy
The benefits of clear behavior expectations and rules for students start with consistency. When the rules are clear, students know what’s expected of them. It helps reduce any confusion or anxiety and helps make the classroom more predictable and also helps set students up for success. It also brings about a sense of fairness because having clear and consistent expectations means it’s the same across the board and everyone is held to the same standard. Another benefit of clear behavior expectations is that it promotes responsibility for students and students can take ownership in their actions. I also think that clear behavior expectations create a positive learning environment and a positive respectful classroom community.
I think clear behavior expectations are beneficial for educators as well because it helps manage the classroom as a whole. Educators can spend less time redirecting and reminding students and more time teaching and building relationships with students because everyone knows what’s expected already. It also reduces disruptions, which helps create a more focused learning environment. I also think clear behavior expectations and rules promote positive teacher-student relationships and helps build respect and trust between students and teachers. And it also helps students understand why rules are in place.
Most educators recognize that rules offer children more predictability in the classroom and should be incorporated into a good management plan. Formal expectations, including rules, should be routinely taught, posted, reviewed, and practiced. This module will explore how to do this.
*In this module, the terms teacher and educator refer to any adult who works with children in a classroom or childcare setting.
