The goal of the Pennie Z. Davis Child Development Center is to provide children with a wonderful learning environment filled with a lot of opportunities for the children to express and explore their feelings. We understand that a child may act out occasionally depending on the situation. Please know that it is our goal to keep working with the child in order to teach them more effective ways of expressing themselves and how to handle difficult situations effectively.
The following are the procedures that our teachers will go through in case a child is not being themselves and need some help getting back on track. First, the child is redirected. By redirecting the child we are giving the child an opportunity to find other things to do in the classroom. If that is not effective, the CDC teachers may have the child sit out for a couple of minutes and talk to the child about alternatives the child had to whatever action he/she may have done. Often times this is a very effective way of dealing with the child. Some times they just need help in finding alternative options to their actions. To us, unacceptable behavior is defined as that which is disruptive to the group as a whole during structured activity time, or behavior which may be harmful to students or adults. Physically or verbally hurting other children and/or staff members is unacceptable.
In the event that a child continues to be disruptive or harm others during the day, you may be called to pick up your child for the rest of the day or designated time frame. This would be a last resort and only after the CDC has exhausted all of our options with your child.
Biting
Unfortunately biting is a common, developmental behavior. Until a child has gained sufficient verbal skills, biting can occur. When biting occurs it can be scary, frustrating, and very stressful for the children involved and the adults. We do our best to provide an environment where minimal biting occurs. Each situation is handled with sensitivity on a case by case basis. If your child is bitten or bites at school, an incident and an accident report will be filled out and sent home with each child involved. The Teacher will contact the parents of both the biter and the child who was bitten, however, we will not disclose the name of the child who did the biting so please do not ask. If excessive
biting is occurring in a classroom we will work hard at resolving the issue in a timely manner. If the biting does continue and the CDC has worked with the parent to try to stop the biting we may need to ask that the child takes a break from our school until we know that the situation has been corrected. Often times this means that we will slowly reintroduce the child to the group setting. Please keep in mind that the CDC will try many steps to help remedy the issue.