Dear Kayla,
First, you are to be commended, as others have, for being so caring and concerned about this little one. And as others have also said, this IS a crisis. What has the director told you about the situation, and about what the other staff have tried in the previous 6 weeks? Does the child cry at home? If so, how do they handle it? As someone else has said, have they already ruled out physical problems? Has anyone asked the family if the temperature of the classroom is significantly different from the temperature of the home? The lighting? The presence or absence of music? Smells? other family members, especially siblings? At home, what does this child do all day? What is expected of her in terms of behavior, activity level, etc?
We once had a child in our program who was quite overweight and sedentary. Seems the previous caregiver had him sitting at the TV all day and if he made any noise, gave him a cookie. Once he moved around and ate healthy snacks at snack time, he gradually grew taller, lost weight, and became VERY active - as if making up for lost time.
Many years ago, I subbed for 2 weeks in a class of 3 year olds, for the month of December. One child cried off and on for the first couple of hours. I was told he cried every day since September. I went right to the director and asked what had already been done. She didn't even know about it! Neither did the mother!!! I don't even remember (it was more than 40 years ago) what I did or said, but in 3 days the crying stopped and the little boy played happily. I was so upset that the staff hadn't involved the director or the family. They didn't want to "look bad" so they just let that little boy cry!!! I do remember that I learned to make sure that everyone was involved in coming up with possible solutions, and have applied this since then.
Best of luck and keep caring!
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Ellen Cogan, MS Ed - Owner, Chief Consultant - HILLTOP Early Childhood SERVICES
NYS Early Learning Credentialed Trainer
NYS Master Cadre, Pyramid Model
Implementation Planner, Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership
www.earlychildinfo.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 09-27-2021 12:05 PM
From: Kayla de Groot
Subject: 11 Month Old Cries ALL Day for 2 Months
Hello,
I am an infant educator with a challenge I am not certain how to solve. Our centre enrolled a child approximately 2 months ago. She is now 11 months old. Her family is from Vietnam, though she was born here in Canada. I became an educator in the classroom two weeks ago, and was made aware that this child struggles emotionally throughout the day. That is, with the exception of brief moments here and there (and if we can get her to nap), this child cries for the majority of the day. She gets especially emotional when other children are in her proximity (our infant room has 8 children) and when she's not held by an adult, but she still cries when held and when given lots of personal space. Due to her high emotional state throughout the day, this child is not eating at all. To support the eating challenge, the child's mom brings some food from home, but the child will not eat this food either (though she will as soon as mom picks up).
It feels as if we are long past the typical period of time that it takes children to adjust to a new centre/routine/caregivers. I am also very concerned because, as stated by the Harvard Center on the Developing Child, "When children's stress response systems remain activated at high levels for long periods, it can have a significant wear-and-tear effect on their developing brains and other biological systems. This can have lifelong effects on learning, behaviour, and both physical and mental health."
As this has surpassed typical adjustment periods and typical seperation anxiety, I am at a loss for how to best support this child. Any advice/suggestions are welcomed!
Thank you in advance!
Kayla
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Kayla de Groot
Early Childhood Educator
NSCECE
Halifax NS
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