Oh, how my heart hurts for you if you are dealing with this situation. Within months of arriving at a new child care center I had a three-year-old little guy who had some serious anger issues. Foul language, SCREAMING, hitting, kicking, slapping, spitting, throwing things and running away from anyone who tried to restrain him. Everyone and everything was fair game - other children, adults, toys, furniture, doors. The only thing that even remotely worked was for me to try to catch him before he blew up so that I could hug him and tell him that I loved him. I would hold him and talk to him in a low voice, telling him he was safe and that I loved him. However, his peace would last for only a short time before he would explode again. It broke my heart when his family denied there was anything wrong - that he was acting like a typical three-year-old. We showed them video of his aggressive behavior and they still insisted he never behaved that way at home. We conferenced with them, provided them with mental health and behavioral therapy resources. It was all in vain. The little guy ended up being excused from our center. I know that behavior therapy can do wonders for young children, but it involves the family in the therapy as well; parents who are already in denial often dismiss that they, too, need to participate in the therapy in order to help their child through the process. Behavior therapy is my personal first choice for families - no medications, just great talk and play therapy that provide everyone with strategies for managing the challenging behavior.
I am not sure if I have actually provided you with any helpful information, but at least I hope you know you're not alone.
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Jill Welch
Lead Teacher
Tottenberry's Private School
Pearland TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-13-2019 07:24 AM
From: James Mitchell
Subject: When to physically intervene
Greetings all, I'm posting today with a very specific question. What level of physical intervention do you use when a child who you are working with loses control? And by losing control, I mean has a history of running away, grabbing items and throwing them dangerously, hitting others, spitting at others, even biting others. Of course we are working with this child and the family to discover what are the underlying causes of their overload and give them more functional ways of dealing with stress. That said, again, I'm asking what does it look like when you are dealing with a child like this? Are you picking them up and moving to a safe space? What if they are hitting you and spitting at you as you move them? What if when you put them down they try to run away again? Thanks for your input.
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James Mitchell
Teacher
Silver Spring Nursery School
Takoma Park MD
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