Philosophy and Behavior Guidance

Program Philosophy

Welcome to the Kids Inn Three Year Old Program. Children at this age are learning the alphabet, shapes, colors, and numbers. They have increased their vocabulary and are now working on sentence structure and content. Since these children have grown and gained strength, their fine motor and large muscle coordination have improved. This allows for greater manipulation of their environment and body. Therefore, your child is more able to toilet and dress independently.

      The teachers of this program are aware of your child's need to be part of a group and to interact with their peers. We assist the children so that they can learn how to do this effectively. They now can understand rules and consequences and demand limits and expectations. They aim to please adults and imitate or model them. The teacher in this room sets up an environment with activities to engage and challenge as they are interacting with others. These activities involve art, a sensory table, manipulatives, opportunities for dramatic play, discovery, play dough, and building. All are set up in such a manner to ensure success. Your child needs the reassurance that they are capable and we are there to give it. Children at this age are also learning how to sit and listen. Staff members take the time to read books, tell flannel board stories, and engage the children in conversations. Since these children are very physical, we encourage them to communicate with language. An exciting time in your child's life is the discovery of humor. In this program, opportunities to joke around or be silly are treasured. We cannot guide your child's development without your help and support. The consistency of rules and demands between school and home is very important and we are unable to achieve this goal without an ongoing dialogue between you and our staff. We will keep you up to date on the happenings in your child's classroom and work on any challenges you may have at home. To do this, there must be a positive supportive teacher/parent relationship.

 

Behavior Guidance Plan

Kids Inn Early Learning Center operates on the premise that young children are never "bad". The types of inappropriate behavior most often seen in a pre-school age children (such as temper tantrums, refusal to cooperate, hitting other children, and failure to follow rules) are usually the result of a child's level of development. Young children lack the social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills needed to comply with many adult demands. For these reasons, our staff uses the following guidelines for promoting positive behavior and responding to undesirable behavior.

Our staff seeks to change behaviors through the use of positive techniques. Some of our methods include:

  1. having age-appropriate expectations for the children
  2. stating rules clearly, and in a manner appropriate for the children’s developmental levels
  3. clarifying the consequences of misbehavior prior to inappropriate behavior occurring
  4. having the children participate in the development of the rules
  5. allowing the children time to practice new rules before implementing consequences for inappropriate behavior
  6. ignoring some kinds of inappropriate behavior (some misbehaviors are attempts to get attention)
  7. reinforcing desirable behavior by praising or rewarding the child

In extreme cases of misbehavior, a teacher may remove a child from the group setting. This technique takes a child away from friends and activity for a short time, giving them the opportunity to start over and calm down.