Part of the challenge is understanding what causes children to bite. There are many different reasons, including frustration, teething, exploration, testing to see a reaction, excitement, over-stimulation, and impulsiveness. Many toddlers/twos have trouble communicating their needs with words. When they experience this trouble communicating, they may turn to biting to make their point. Part of an early childhood program is teaching the children to express their emotions in more positive, constructive ways instead of biting or acting out aggressively. We are constantly researching methods to prevent such behaviors and do our utmost to implement every possible strategy. Among the techniques we are utilizing are:
1. Maintaining a low teacher-to-child ratio; while DCFS allows for 1 to 8 at the twos level, we utilize a 1 to 6 ratio. …show more content…
Remaining proactive to stop the behavior before it happens, including staying in close proximity to the children (i.e. on the floor with them if they are on the floor), separating children who are known to bite in certain situations, and assigning a specific staff member to shadow a biting child closely as much as possible.
3. Structuring activities to include small group tasks to allow for closer monitoring and decrease over-stimulation for children.
4. Teaching children to share and take turns, as well as having multiples of the same toy; as you said, biting often occurs because children want the same object to play with.
5. Reading books like "Teeth are not for Biting" to reinforce the concept and modeling appropriate behavior. While it is too abstract for most young children to fully comprehend, and certainly control impulsive behavior, over time and with repetition, they will learn not to bite, hit, etc.
6. Working with parents of children who habitually bite on strategies to reinforce both at home and here at
1. Maintaining a low teacher-to-child ratio; while DCFS allows for 1 to 8 at the twos level, we utilize a 1 to 6 ratio. …show more content…
Remaining proactive to stop the behavior before it happens, including staying in close proximity to the children (i.e. on the floor with them if they are on the floor), separating children who are known to bite in certain situations, and assigning a specific staff member to shadow a biting child closely as much as possible.
3. Structuring activities to include small group tasks to allow for closer monitoring and decrease over-stimulation for children.
4. Teaching children to share and take turns, as well as having multiples of the same toy; as you said, biting often occurs because children want the same object to play with.
5. Reading books like "Teeth are not for Biting" to reinforce the concept and modeling appropriate behavior. While it is too abstract for most young children to fully comprehend, and certainly control impulsive behavior, over time and with repetition, they will learn not to bite, hit, etc.
6. Working with parents of children who habitually bite on strategies to reinforce both at home and here at