Promoting Positive Behavior Guidance Strategies for Early Childhood Settings

Promoting Positive Behavior: Guidance Strategies for Early Childhood Settingsis designed as a text for college courses at the two- and four-year levels to prepare teachers and other professionals to work with young children and their families in early care and education settings of all kinds. This book can also serve as a resource for practicing early childhood teachers, caregivers, and administrators. The primary goal of this text is to articulate a variety of guidance strategies designed to promote the emotional well-being of young children, reduce problem behaviors, and enhance children's social competence. The concepts and guidance strategies presented inPromoting Positive Behaviorare based on current research, evidence-based practice, and the authors' experience with the ECECARES Project, a teacher-training program for early childhood educators housed at the University of Colorado at Denver. Five constructs synthesized from research on young children's social/emotional development form the core of CARES Strategies: Caring and cooperative early childhood settings Assertiveness (self-esteem and mastery) Relationship skills Emotional regulation and reactivity Self-control Since its inception in 1994, the ECE-CARES Project has trained over 2,000 early childhood educators and implemented CARES Strategies in early care and education settings serving over 20,000 children and their families. In a series of research studies, children in settings practicing CARES Strategies demonstrated significantly higher rates of prosocial skills than children in control classrooms, showing more positive peer interactions, improvements in emotional regulation, and use of peaceful conflict resolution. Promoting Positive Behaviorpresents real-life examples specific to the needs of adults working with toddlers, preschoolers, and primary-grade children. The vignettes, insights, and strategies described in this book represent a collection of knowledge and experiences gathered from hundreds of care and education professionals with whom we have worked. The guidance strategies presented are designed to be woven into the fabric of typical routines and learning activities of any care and education setting. Text chapters include research and practical skills designed to give care and education providers a factual knowledge base and an integrated set of guidance strategies for use in professional practice. In general, chapters follow this sequence: Opening vignettepresents a real-life scenario focusing on the content in the chapter Presentation of concepts, research, and strategiesto enable early care and education providers to guide young children and promote positive behavior Ideas for involving familieseither interspersed throughout or in a separate section at the end of the chapter Key terms and conceptsto define important terminology used in the chapter Learning in actionprovides small-group activities and field assignments that allow students in college courses to observe, practice, and apply concepts and strategies; designed to be carried out independently or under the direction of the instructor Children's booksthat relate to the chapter theme Suggested reading and resourcesto provide additional sources of information and assistance Referencesthat direct readers to sources of information cited in the text We have tried to adopt an informal, comfortable writing style to make the book easy to read and follow. To avoid the awkwardness of "he or she," we have called a childhein the odd-numbered chapters andshein the even-numbered chapters. The choice of masculine or feminine pronoun does not imply an exclusive reference to the particular gender indicated.Adams, Suzanne K. is the author of 'Promoting Positive Behavior Guidance Strategies for Early Childhood Settings', published 2004 under ISBN 9780131408098 and ISBN 0131408097.