Q We had a difficult situation before the summer break. A four-year-old girl started to hit out at other children for what looked like no reason at all.
Inevitably some parents told their children to 'hit her back' and said to us, 'You can't expect four-year-olds to do nothing!' We feel we have perhaps been more focused on saying to children, 'We have no hitting in our pre-school,' than on giving them ideas about what it is all right to do when they get hit.
A All credit to you for spotting this gap. Early years practitioners sometimes overlook the fact that children need positive strategies for responding to aggression. Without some ideas of what to do or say, children may feel that unacceptable behaviour from their peers is resolved by their tolerance of being hurt.
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