Understanding the reason behind a child's challenging behaviour is more important than dealing with the behaviour itself, according to a world-leading expert in Wagga this week.
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Early childhood special education expert, professor Mary Louise Hemmerter, has been training educators across the country how to use the “Teaching Pyramid Model.”
According to Professor Hemmerter, a classroom run on the pyramid model will have children engaged in learning, children talking about problem solving, asking for help to solve problems and children and adults talking about emotions.
Emotions are a key part of the model with a lot of time dedicated to helping children understand how to deal with different emotions.
“You can pick any challenging behaviour (kicking, biting, hitting) and attach it to an emotion,” Professor Hemmerter said.
“The behaviour is not as important as knowing why they are doing it.”
Professor Hemmerter said that helping children understand the choices they make is an important part of the model.
“We say to children they need to make good choices but they need to understand what a good choice is,” she said.
If a child hits or takes a toy from a friend, the educator explains the situation rather than just putting the child in time out.
“They need to understand emotion and consequence behind the choice they make,” Professor Hemmerter said.
The model is used widely in all states of America and is now being adopted across the country.
At the base of the pyramid is relationships and environment, followed by intentionally teaching social skills, with the top of the pyramid being individual plans for the children who still engage in problem behaviours.
The theory behind the pyramid is that if the bottom two steps are done correctly, very few children will exhibit problem behaviours and not require the top level of the pyramid.
Wagga-based pyramid trainer Sara Stockman was thrilled by the model when she learnt it two years ago, becoming a trainer shortly after.
After working in early childhood education for 18 years, Ms Stockman said the differences under the model were obvious.
She said all relationships between staff, children and families, have been improved at the centres thanks to the program.
To access information on the program, Wagga parents can go to the websites http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/ or http://www.challengingbehaviour.org/
