Behavior Guidance
Love & Logic Guidance
At Aunty’s Child Care, we incorporate Love & Logic Guidance into every aspect of our practice. Love & Logic is all about a balanced approach — we dedicate our time to helping children develop personal responsibility, self-control, and good decision-making skills. We do not use a complicated reward/punishment system, instead focusing on nurturing long-term relationships and reinforcing good character.
Children 12 mos. & under
We find it most effective to remove the child from the situation, and redirect their attention elsewhere. Although we will most likely explain to the child that the offending behavior was inappropriate; children of this age are rarely able to fully understand what they have done. Fortunately, at this age, their attention span is also typically shorter than with older children, so simply showing them a different toy or activity usually does the job.
Children 12 mos. & older
We are firm followers of Love & Logic guidance. Children need to learn and explore the enviornment and to make ‘affordable mistakes’ in order to learn.
When a child has upset a friend, we opt for empathy. We point out that the friend is sad because of the offending behavior. We ask what the offender could do differently next time and also invite children to apologize to the other child or children involved, in sign language or with words. As the goal is to teach empathy, apologies are not a punishment nor should they be mandatory. Usually we will say something like ‘Your friend is sad because you took his truck. How can you help your friend feel better?
We are not big on time outs as we prefer to stay positive and encourage personal responsibility. We teach the children to utilize a ‘calm down space’ aka Quiet Cube, available in Toddler and Preschool rooms. We encourage children to recognize their feelings and we affirm their feelings. We teach that although it is okay to feel angry, your anger does not make it okay to harm others. We instead encourage a break in the calm down area, which is not a time out but a self guided ‘break’. The calm down area has some sensory toys, emotional support books and other items to help the child refocus.
Serious Disciplinary Measures
In the rare instance that we feel any child in care needs additional support in regards to self control and empathy, we will request a conference with the parents for formulate a plan and possibly make referrals to outside resources. If an understanding cannot be reached we reserve the right to terminate our contract with as much notice as possible in order to guarantee the comfort and safety of the other children in our care. There are certain behaviors that just will not be tolerated, including but not limited to violence towards a teacher, profane language, unsafe behavior such as running away from the group inside or outside, and repeated physical harm of peers.