Guidance Tools

By: Sabrina Avery

Environment
The physical environment should tell children clearly
how to act in that space. Materials and equipment
should be adequate and interesting to the age group.

Body expressions and attitude

Behavior problems stem form the childs attempt to
express social and emotional needs. These include the
need to feel loved and cared for.

Active Listening
Good communication is key to developing and
maintaining good relationships between parents,
teachers and children. Active listening takes time but
a thoughtful attitude of acceptance of childrens
feelings and helps children drop their defensive
attitudes, opening the opportunity for a more
positive type of communication.

Ignoring
Either physically or psychologically, the parent or
caregiver is not present to respond to the child. He or
she may not look at the child and may not call the
child by name.

Redirection and Distraction

The distraction method means to divert ones
attentions to something new to convince them to
stop doing an action.
The redirection method means to assess the first
impulse and redirect ones actions to something
similar while still honoring the impulse.

Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is the best reinforcement and
using techniques to modify a childs behavior by
reinforcing desired behaviors.

Active Problem Solving

Active problem solving is the cognitive processing
directed at achieving a goal when no solution method
is obvious to the problem solver.

Offer Choice
It may be easier for the adults to make a choice for
the child; it is well worth the effort it takes to
provide children with the opportunity to take pride
in their ability to make independent choices. Looking
for opportunities in all of the everyday aspects life is
very important for children.

Natural Consequences
This can be natural consequences can be feedback of
any kind from the environment, peer, learning
materials or physical activates. These can be
anything from physical discomforts to challenging
situations to problematic scenarios to surprise
outcomes that naturally steer a child toward making
more informed choice and identifying person
preferences.

Logical Consequences
Refer to the actions or responses that are
implemented following a childs inappropriate
behavior that serve to discourage the child from
engaging in the behavior again. Logical
consequences are used as an alternative to
punishment strategies such as reprimands or
scolding

I Messages

* I messages are honest, nonjudgmental statements

that place no blame on the child but that state an
observation of the behavior and its results.