Making full use of Barbara Kaiser's 25 years of experience as a child care director and teacher, this text presents information and strategies to deal with the challenging behavior that teachers find more and more often in their classrooms.
Vignettes throughout the text featuring real children make these strategies come alive.
Based on the 40-page NAEYC booklet on the same topic, “Meeting the Challenge: Effective Strategies for Challenging Behavior in Early Childhood Environments” (1999), this new text explores the subject matter and strategies in greater depth with more up-to-date information. Additional chapters on resilience, culture, the brain, self-reflection, working with families, and bullying make this text a more comprehensive and useful resource.
In addition to two full chapters on preventing challenging behavior, three chapters provide specific strategies for responding to challenging behavior. Chapter 9, “Guidance and Punishment,” gives a balanced overview of traditional guidance strategies (e.g. positive reinforcement, consequences, and time-out). Chapter 10, “The WEVAS Strategy,” a new approach to challenging behavior that focuses on the teacher's response to the child, furnishes concrete, easy-to-use techniques. Chapter 11, “Functional Assessment,” presents a clear, concise overview of functional assessment, a strategy mandated by IDEA that views challenging behavior from the child's perspective. The appendices contain functional assessment charts and explanations of how to use them.
“What makes the authors' work so valuable is that it's as much about relationships as it is about strategies. Barbara has consulted with us at Family Communications about our “Challenging Behaviors” project. Now through this book, people who work closely with young children can benefit from what she and Judy have learned in their search to provide meaningful help to these children.”
- Fred Rogers, Creator and host of the PBS children's program, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood
“Wise but eminently practical. What you'll learn from reading this book will have a significant positive effect on you as a teacher and on the hundreds of children you will eventually touch.”
- Sue Bredekamp, author of Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs
“This textbook has been needed for a long time. It pulls together so many aspects of dealing with problem behavior and covers the field very well. It is up to date, accurate, and interesting to read. I particularly appreciate the fact that these authors are dealing with real children, real adults, and real situations.”
- Dorothy Hewes, San Diego State University
“The authors' scholarship and experience are evident throughout. The direct references to cultural sensitivity are extremely well done. The chapter addressing reflective teaching is also a welcome addition.... Multiple references to various theories and philosophies of intervention provide an effective and eclectic approach.”
- Diane E. Strangis, University of Florida
“Because this book really helps provide a framework for thinking about behavior, it is an extremely useful primary text for courses in elementary education.”
- Ed Greene, Montclair State University, NJ
“Full of good sense and good ideas. This book is clear, practical, sympathetic, and wise. It will be helpful to a great many parents and teachers and child care professionals, and to anyone else who spends time with or cares about children.”
- Lawrence Hartmann, M.D., Past President, American Psychiatric Association
