What Is The Relationship Between Curriculum And Discipline?

Teaching children responsibility, self control and self management as long term goals cannot be taught in a weekly theme. It is taught through the way care givers handle daily situations with children in their care. By their developmental characters, young children are egocentric; they think only about their needs. They also think about the present, the here and now. As they get older, they learn to consider others and to think beyond the present. The curriculum should include opportunities for the child to learn social skills through taking on responsibility, involvement in age appropriate activities, and talking about feelings with young children.

Help Children Become Responsible By:

Teaching Responsibility with Discipline and Guidance

• Set a good example
• Talk with children about the feelings of others
• Help children to own their own feelings
• Encourage children to express their own needs to you
• Give children an opportunity to make things better
• Assist children in solving their own problems
• Use fair and logical consequences
• Catch them being good
• Expect good behaviour

Teaching Responsibility through Age Appropriate Curriculum

• Make "clean up" an important part of your play session
• Help children learn to care for themselves
• Give children doable tasks
• Be supportive when children experience failure as well as success
• Give the children real and meaningful work to do
• Keep your word with children
• Help children learn to be good citizens in your child care
• Have high hopes for the children

Talk about all feelings - positive and negative

• Try to use the best "feeling" word to describe what the child is feeling
• Read books about feelings - it's a great way to discuss feelings with children.

Talking about Feelings helps children develop sensitivity to the feelings of others and to manage their own emotions

Responding To Emotional Outbursts

Many things excite and upset youngsters. It is important for day care providers to know how to respond to emotional outbursts.

Anger
When children become angry because someone else is playing with their favourite toy, an angry response from an adult will make the situation worse. Instead, try to calm the child: " I know you're angry. Let's talk about it when you stop crying." As the child calms down, redirect his attention. Offer a substitute toy to play with for the time being until he can play with the preferred toy.

Fear
Some fears of children are sensible while other fears of children are appropriate but can do no harm to them, such as fear of the dark or of the toilet. Do not make fun of the child; rather, encourage the child to talk about the fear. Help children learn more about the object of their fear. For example, if children are afraid of the dark, you can use flashlights and go to the dark room and play shadow puppets. The children may learn to enjoy the dark. For fear of thunder, an example would be to teach them how to count the seconds between lightning flashes and the thunder.

Frustration
To a young child, a two-minute wait for a toy may seem forever. The child may get frustrated from the wait. Be alert. Sometimes you can anticipate the frustration, and respond by giving the child a substitute toy. You can express sympathy with the child and remind the child that he/she must take turns.

Sadness
When children are sad and crying, they should not be warned against crying or expressing themselves. It's healthy for boys to learn that men cry, for example. Avoid telling a child that "big boys don't cry." Instead, help children to talk about their sadness. It may be helpful at times to leave the child alone.

Authors as Published

Novella J. Ruffin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Extension Child Development Specialist, Virginia State University, Virginia Dept. of Education Licensed School Psychologist and NCSP