Nursery World - Out of control

Being disruptive is a form of curiosity. It can be a way of finding out about authority - just what are the rules around here? A disruptive child may never have known a firm but kind 'this far and no further', says Andrea Clifford-Poston. "he's rude, a nuisance and he just spoils things for the others ...'

"he's rude, a nuisance and he just spoils things for the others ...'

Ten-year old Tom was fast becoming the bane of his playworker's life. 'He's our only problem', continued another staff member, 'they'll all be getting on fine and then Tom comes in and disrupts it all. The club is so different when he's not around.'

'Yes', added another, 'but he's fine one to one. It's when he gets into a group...'

Feelings were running high in this staff support group. It was obvious some of the staff wanted to exclude Tom, not punitively, but because they simply didn't know how to cope with him. All felt, 'I've run the gauntlet of my skills with him.' We can all sympathise with how they felt, but are disruptive children 'just disruptive'?

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