Nursery World - Biting: Taking a firm grip

Children who bite others are going through a temporary behavioural stage, yet one that causes more upset in the nursery than any other. Dr Richard Woolfson explains how to make an effective response

Young children have an amazing ability to express their anger in outrageous ways. You'll already have discovered in the nursery that some vent their fury by shouting and screaming, some by kicking the furniture, some by lying on the ground and kicking their feet furiously in the air, and some even by sulking.

But it's the nursery child who bites who usually causes the most concern.

The problem is that biting is painful for the recipient, and often it is an innocent bystander who is on the receiving end - usually another child who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not only that, if a child you work with bites in temper, you will know the fear it creates in all the other children in the nursery. There will be a steady stream of complaints about him from his peers and their parents.

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