Positive Guidance

Techniques

T.M.Kamrul Hasan

How Do We Tell Children…

•  they can feel like they have some control over their day and themselves?

• that they are safe?•  that they are not bad, but are making bad

choices?•   that learning is what is important?•   that we value who they are?•   that we understand them?•   that we take their concerns and fears seriously?

Positive Guidance

• Is based on what we know about the child

• Is based on what we know about child development

• Is administered with the goal of teaching children self-control and good decision making

• Offers children choices• Leaves children’s self esteem

intact• Employs natural and logical

consequences• Offers consequences known and

understood by the child

- Employs a system of utilizing the least confrontational choices whenever and wherever possible, escalated only when necessary

- Is consistent - Takes into consideration

situations, circumstances and individual children

- Is child-centered, capitalizing on a relationship build on trust and rapport 

Positive Guidance is not…

• Punitive• Administered in anger• Rigid• About intimidation, or control for the

sake of control• About being “right”

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the

weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

 In all situations it is my response that decides

whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or

de-humanized.” - Haim Ginott 

Developmentally Appropriate

Activities and Practices are:

- Based on what we know about how young children learn  - Relevant to children’s life experiences

- Based on the children’s current knowledge and abilities  - Respectful of cultural and individual differences and learning styles  - Responsive to the interests and needs of the children  - Focused on the learning process, not the end product

- Thought provoking - stimulating and challenging the minds of young children

- Based on the philosophy that children are competent and trustworthy, and can make good decisions if given the

opportunity and practice

Steps in Problem-Solving…

• 1.     Have children identify the problem and feelings

• 2.     Re-state the problem• 3.     Ask each child for

ideas for solutions• 4.     Negotiate until

children can agree upon some sort of compromise

5. Reinforce