Guidance of Young Children

My prior understanding of discipline was uneducated and inaccurate. I was certain that discipline was related to punishment and the goal was to have a particular unwanted behavior to cease. A child that required discipline would be singled out, scolded, forced to perform a chore or action, such as sit for a time out, or the child would have something taken away, such as television or toys. As a child, I grew up in a household with parents who were primarily authoritative. They tended to be fair; however they did use punishment through "grounding", which generally meant that we were not able to engage in fun for set period of time. Other times, we were instructed to perform some sort of labor of their choice, such as washing my Dad's car. I rarely misbehaved in school due to the fact that I was extremely shy, so I lacked the need for negative discipline however I can clearly recall other children being told put their heads down, sit in the back of the room or move to the hallway when the teacher would become exhausted with their continuous misbehavior. I became aware that many people including the parents of students still validate these tainted forms of discipline and may require some edification on the behalf of the teacher to discover more appropriate methods of discipline (EDC, personal communication, October 13, 2011).

As my education with the childcare field strengthens, I have discovered that guidance is the appropriate method to be used to reach the goal of harmony in the classroom. "Guidance means creating a positive learning environment for each child in the group" (Gartrell, 2004, p. 21) With the use of guidance and a democratic classroom, children feel important and have greater respect for their teacher, whi...

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...ng, and walking in safe, open areas while also providing children with the ability to safely push, pull, roll, and climb (Marion, 2012, p. 108). Younger children are just developing their gross motor skills and tend to fall or bump themselves, so furniture must be safe and low to the ground. Because the children in a daycare are so young, there is a higher risk of injury if the environment is not accommodating. In a school classroom, the majority children are sturdier, have more advanced gross motors skills, as well as prior knowledge about certain dangers, so while precautions have to be taken, they are not as extreme.

Bibliography

Gartrell, D. (2004). The power of guidance, teaching social-emotional skills in early childhood classrooms. Belmont, CA: Delmar

Marion, M. (2012). Guidance of young children. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc