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Educators and other staff working in early childhood education and care are likely to be guiding and supporting children’s behaviour on a daily basis.
Here are some ideas that you could use at a staff meeting for ongoing professional development and to boost staff morale as you learn and refresh your skills and knowledge in relation to managing behaviour together. Some of these activities may also be suitable to use as part of your staff induction process along with your service’s policy and procedure relating to guiding behaviour.
Undertaking these activities will support you as a leader to assess if further professional development for individuals or the team is required and will also help you meet the NQS elements:
Choosing the activity or activities or undertake can be determined by the leader according to the skills and experience of the staff, the time available for the activities and may also be informed by recent experiences or incidents at the service
Read (all or some of) the following questions and discuss together as a group:
A child’s behaviour could be likened to an iceberg. With an iceberg, we can only see 10% of it above the water, the other 90% is under the water.
Children’s behaviour is seen and observed (like the top of an iceberg above the water) and is a result of many other factors that are unseen (like the bottom of the iceberg that is under the water and can’t be seen).
Together or in pairs or groups use this iceberg diagram to explore and brainstorm the factors that may be contributing to a child’s behaviour.
Discuss the factors that are already listed. For example, how might health affect behaviour? What types of health may affect behaviour? Physical, medical, disability, short-term, long-term, undiagnosed etc.
What other factors may contribute to behaviour that aren’t already listed?
Display the diagram and the factors you’ve discussed together in the staff meeting room or lunch room for further reflection and talking points
The Circle of Security model highlights the need for adults to be at a child’s level and available to support children and provide them with a secure base when they need it.
(See the fact sheet Supporting Children to Regulate Their Own Behaviour from ACECQA for more information and the original image.)
Image sourced from www.acecqa.gov.au
Briefly review the Circle of Security model together as a group.
Choose one aspect of the model eg. “I need you to support exploration”.
Discuss as a whole group or in pairs or small groups what this would look like in an educator’s daily practice for different age groups.
For example, what things would an educator actually say or do to support the exploration of a 2 year old?