Managing Extreme Behaviours in the Early Years

Increasing numbers of children attending pre school provision have led to increasing referrals to the advisory services for behavioural issues. Children appear to be having difficulty conforming to social expectations in educational settings and are presenting us with more extreme behaviours. In spite of much advice already available in the form of written material, books and TV programmes there appears to be an increase in behaviours reported and in practitioners searching for managing strategies. The suggested strategies are based upon long, varied experiences in real life situations and have a grounding in practice, designed to be manageable, realistic and relevant to educational settings. They cover the following behaviours:

• Self harm
• Hitting
• Running away
• Sexualised behaviour
• Refusal to talk
• Uncooperative behaviour
• Aggressive behaviour