![]() ![]() As African American boys experience a much higher rate of suspensions and expulsions from preschool settings than do other children (Gilliam 2005), these relationship-building techniques are particularly relevant for teachers as they reflect on their own practices and biases-especially toward African American boys-in early childhood classrooms.Ī core consideration in developmentally appropriate practice and cultural responsiveness is that practitioners learn about each child and family and intentionally adapt and respond to each child’s strengths and needs (Copple & Bredekamp 2009 Derman-Sparks & Edwards 2009). In this article we describe five culturally responsive core strategies to promote positive teacher relationships with young children in preschool and minimize challenging behavior: learn about children and families, develop and teach expectations, take the child’s perspective, teach and model empathy, and use group times to discuss conflict. That is, while 10–21 percent of all preschool children show challenging behaviors such as aggression, noncompliance, defiance, tantrums, and property destruction, 30 percent of children who live in poverty exhibit such behaviors (Voorhees et al. In addition, there is a specific need to support children who live in poverty, as children in poor families are twice as likely to be at risk for developmental, behavioral, and social delays as children in families earning 200 percent or more of the federal poverty line (Children’s Defense Fund 2014). ![]() 2007).Īlthough challenging behavior can occur in any classroom, research indicates that some children in urban communities experience conditions that contribute to risk factors for social and emotional delays (Fox, Dunlap, & Powell 2002). Challenging behavior can signal difficulty with social and emotional adjustment-foundational competencies that are linked to children’s school readiness and later school success (Fantuzzo et al. Challenging behavior is defined as “any repeated pattern of behavior, or perception of behavior, that interferes with or is at risk of interfering with optimal learning or engagement in prosocial interactions with peers and adults” (Powell, Dunlap, & Fox 2006, 26). Although teachers will want to evaluate whether they are planning activities that require children to sit for an extended time and ensure that the activities they offer children are active and meaningful, it is also important for teachers to understand how to support children who exhibit challenging behavior. Miles’s actions are clearly a source of frustration for his teachers. First, please sit calmly at morning circle for three minutes then you can play with the instruments. Should we take the instruments to the circle and play with them after we’ve finished our calendar activities?” Miles smiles. She says, “Miles, I see that you are upset because you don’t want to sit at morning circle and want to play with the musical instruments instead. Green gently places her hand on Miles’s arm and looks him in the eye. Green approaches him, Miles folds his arms across his chest, then kicks his legs and screams. Green leads the children in her preschool classroom in their morning song: “The more we get together, together, together, the more we get together the hap-.” She stops abruptly to run after Miles, who has left morning circle to play with the musical instruments. ![]()
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