My first article that I chose was Registered Early Childhood Educators’ (RECEs) Perceptions of Children who Exhibit Challenging Behaviours in the Classroom”.
This article was written by Diana Chow, Cristina DiNardo, Amy Nicole Garthson, Oi Ling Helen Kwok, Susan Elizabeth O’Neill, Dr. Sharon Quan-McGimpsey.
This article can be found in Challenging Ourselves In Our Practice – Interaction Volume 29, Number 2, Fall 2015 on page 27-30.
The main focus of this article is about challenging behaviors that ECEs can experience in the classroom that interferes with the child’s ability to learn and develop. It can present physical, instructional, or social concerns to the educator and sometimes to other students. This article also did a case study with other educators that have experience ranging from 4 years to 27 years. It shows the difference that experience with children, experience with other educators, experience with parents, and experience with different environments can impact how one educator may face challenging behaviors compared to another.
I chose this article because when I first started working in a preschool setting my job was support work with a little girl that has “challenging behaviors’. I had no experience at that point, besides my own children, and I was given no help or guidance from my employer. This was a very eye opening experience because I needed to learn to build a relationship with this child not based on what others viewed challenging behaviour as and how to deal with it. When it comes to children, I have a very soft approach and this comes from my childhood experiences. I believe that these challenging behaviours that children express all come from a need that is lacking in their life.
Challenging behaviours are not easy and can make people judge and have bias. It is a hard behaviour to get to the bottom of. As this article has touched on, each child will not need or react to help the same way as the other. Each child is different and will need something different. Educators that help each other without judgment is a needed tool when working with challenging behaviours.
Lets help each other help children!
Love that we chose the same article!
The first center I worked in had a lot of “challenging” children. We were actually known for it at the time.
Reflecting back on it now, I feel like we let a lot of children down in how we could have better supported them. As well as better supported the staff that worked with them.
I’m happy that now I am starting to see why it is a stress trigger for me, and how I can better help myself, to help the children.
So true that we need to help each other to help the children 🙂