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Others who Look after Children

In addition to teachers, there are other adults who look after children on a daily basis, and who therefore need strategies for managing children’s behaviour.

Nursery and preschool staff

Nurseries and preschools cater for very young children, sometimes from as young as three months, until they reach school age. Day-care provision varies greatly from country to country, in opening hours, cost (private or state) and the number of hours children attend. As well as providing a safe and nurturing environment for young children to grow and flourish in, nurseries (and preschool) are responsible for children’s early years’ education, which obviously includes guidelines for acceptable behaviour. Young children can spend the larger part of their waking week at day care, in effect spending more time with the nursery nurses than with their parents. Staff therefore have a huge responsibility towards ensuring that children in their care have the best start in life, both in their physical and emotional development, as well as in achieving socially acceptable behaviour.

The techniques we looked at for parents to successfully manage babies and young children (Chapters 1–3) can equally be applied to individual children in the nursery or preschool situation. Nursery staff will spend more time catering for the individual needs of the children than teachers at school, where the children are older and generally expected to conform to the norm of their class. However, there will be times at nursery, particularly with preschool children, where the staff, in preparation for school, will be working with the children on a group basis. Nursery teachers therefore need to have a certain authoritative presence, similar to that of the class teacher, in order to manage group activities, as well as warmth and tenderness for nurturing babies and young children on a one-to-one basis.

Clearly babies in day care need a routine of sleeping and feeding, just as they do at home. It will be the responsibility of the staff to establish this within the nursery, in consultation with the parents. Request, Repeat and Reassure works with baby’s routine in day care as well as at home, and will, in some form, have been the basis of the staff’s professional training for managing babies in the nursery. You, as the nursery nurse, will be keeping a log of the baby’s routine – feeds, sleeps, playtime, moods, etc. – which information you discuss with your manager and with the parents when they collect the baby at the end of the day. Continuity of routine between nursery and home for the baby should ideally be maintained as much as possible, so as to engender security in the baby, and a baby who feels secure is less likely to be fractious.

Continuity of staff at the day care centre is also important, although it is not always possible, as staff leave or are promoted. Often a rota of staff operates and a baby is therefore required to bond with more than one nursery nurse, as well as maintaining the bond with its parents. Obviously keep change of staff to a minimum, and be aware that any change is likely to affect the baby’s behaviour.

As well as a change of care provider there are other, not so obvious, changes in the nursery which can upset a baby’s behaviour: repositioning the cot or rearranging the nursery furniture, a change of room, new toys, redecorating the room or even closing a blind that is usually left open. You will be working closely with the parents and will hopefully be informed of any changes at home that might affect baby, and therefore the baby’s behaviour. If a baby suddenly appears unsettled and there is no obvious reason, inform the parents and explore any possible causes that could be responsible – for example, a change of house, routine or diet.

As babies grow into toddlers, it often means a change of room at nursery and with it a change of care provider. Clearly the toddler needs to be prepared for this well in advance, having the changes explained beforehand, visiting the new room and meeting the new members of staff for short periods before the actual move. Despite all the preparation, the toddler is still likely to become unsettled for a while and plenty of reassurance will be needed. The toddler, now mobile and inquisitive, is likely to present the nursery staff with many of the behavioural challenges that he or she presents to the parents at home. Follow the 3Rs with the toddler (Chapter 1), and remember that Reassure should also become Reaffirm as you guide the child to acceptable behaviour, both as an individual and part of the group.

Any negative behaviour in children at day care should be dealt with in line with nursery policy, logged and discussed with the parents. Ideally both the nursery staff and parents will manage the child’s behaviour in a similar way, and with similar guidelines. However, nursery staff often assume the greater responsibility for setting in place the boundaries and guidelines for good behaviour, particularly with a child who is in day care full time. If the child is spending more time with the staff than with the parents, parents who are working long hours often feel guilty about not being with their child, and are more inclined to overindulge their child in the evenings and weekends, give in to their demands and be reluctant to discipline. These double standards can be unsettling for the child and difficult for nursery staff to deal with. While you are responsible for the child’s behaviour at nursery you can do little about what happens at home, other than offer tactful and helpful suggestions for continuing with the guidelines you have put in place and which work well at nursery.

The expectations for acceptable behaviour, and the techniques used to achieve it, apply at nursery as they do at home or school:

*  Assume positive behaviour and deal with incidents as they arise, using the 3Rs.

*  Always