Nursery World - Positive Relationships: Behaviour

Behaviour is an area of early years learning as important as any other. Annette Rawstrone finds out how some settings approach it

Does your setting have a series of behaviour strategies that come into force when something goes wrong, or an overall approach that starts with the child? At Lark Lane Pre-school in Liverpool, practitioners try to see situations from the point of view of the individual child in an attempt to interpret why that child has reacted in a particular way.

Early years teacher Teresa Lalley says, ‘If a child bites another then we will question what may have happened to make them behave that way. It could be that the child is tired, or missed their breakfast that morning.’

Early years teacher Liz Ludden, from Dukes and Duchesses day nursery, also in Liverpool, agrees that if staff can understand why the behaviour is happening then they are then in a better position to help the child. She uses the recent example of a pre-school child who uncharacteristically bit another.

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