Weekly series: Lesson learned from little humans! 

Dear {{contact.first_name}}

Happy Monday! 

How did we get here? What are we doing to young children? I am so angry and sad at the same time! I am still trying to process what I witnessed last week while I was observing in a preschool classroom.

One teacher was at the table with Sophie, a 3-year-old. The teacher wanted Sophie to trace the letters in the writing notebook. Sophie didn’t want to do it. She kept saying, “I want to get a book”. The teacher said, “pick it up,” pointing to the pencil. When Sophie refused to comply, the teacher started getting quite irritated with her and kept saying, “pick it up, pick it up.” She even grabbed the wrist to force Sophie to pick it up and write. 

By now, the little girl was getting quite stressed and started crying and pushing the notebook away. The other teacher told the team teacher, “Sophie needs to learn to listen, don’t let her win, she needs to do what she is told and trace the letters before she can get up.” 

The whole incident just kept escalating with the little girl clearly distressed. She starts throwing the pencil container on the ground, starts yelling at the teacher and kicking the table but the teachers did not let up. They started telling her she can’t yell at them, and to pick up all the pencils she had thrown on the ground. 

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. These teachers just wanted compliance at any cost. It was so important to them that the letters got traced and the means justified the end. I honestly think they thought they were doing the right thing by teaching the letters and teaching her that she needed to listen. 

Do we really think this is how children learn? We do things to children we would never do to adults! 

If you have seen something similar happening in your school, then I have you covered! One of the things I teach in my training and coaching is understanding the three brain states (survival, emotional and learning brain) and children must feel safe and loved before they are ready to learn. 

 Co-regulation is another effective strategy when adults recognize what the children are experiencing and how they could help. If the teachers had known about co-regulation strategies they could have turned this around easily instead of repeating again and again, “pick it up”  they would have recognized that the little girl was struggling and the teacher could have said, “I can see this is hard for you, what can we do to help?” That would have helped reduce the overwhelm Sophie was feeling and helped to calm the situation. 

My coaching membership program is designed for your entire team. Learn about effective strategies to reduce challenging behaviors and engage the brain for learning with lots of practical, effective, and impactful strategies. 
Once the teachers learn coping strategies it reduces staff burnout, leading to less staff turnover. Leave the sessions rejuvenated, inspired, and motivated to change the way you are teaching little humans. 

P.S. Are you ready to transform your program from stressful to joyful? Contact me today to learn more about my behavior coaching membership program. It’s like having access to a consultant without paying their salary! Click here for a free discovery call

Watch the full video on Co-regulation vs Compliance

Until Next Time!