How to Observe a Child's Behavior

Video Transcript

"Hi, I am Pam on behalf of Expert Village and now we're going to talk about understanding behaviors in children. One start to controlling behaviors is to observe what's going on. The more knowledge you have the easier it's going to be for you to figure out what to do. So, collect information about behavior, get a notebook and write things down. Identify what causes the children to lose control when. Does a certain child only have a tantrum at a certain time of day? Maybe, when their mother leaves, maybe they?re so upset that they're more aggressive during that time. Do they only have a tantrum when someone is playing with something that they want? Maybe that's a sign that they're not really quite used to sharing yet. That gives you something to work on. Write these down and talk to other teachers about them. You know how many teachers intervened, what did you do and what was the reaction? Did it work? Did it not work? Okay, did you try something else the other time? These are all observations that you want to keep track of. What prompts a child?s resistance? What precedes it? How long does it last? You need to keep a record of all of this information. Like I said, it may seem silly, but the more information you have the easier it's going to be to know what the child is going to do and to already be one step ahead of them."