Marion (c) Pearson

1. CHAPTER 5:
Positive Guidance and Discipline
Strategies:
Direct Guidance
Guidance of Young Children
Ninth Edition
Marian Marion
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

2. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-2
The Concept of Guidance or
Discipline

3. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-3
Concept of Discipline:
Some definitions
Culture: how a society guides children reflects the
values and beliefs through language, interaction, and
relationships
Socialization: process through which children
acquire their culture and learn the values and habits
that will help them adapt to it
Discipline: guidance, teaching and learning, not
punishment
Guidance or discipline encounter: interaction
between an adult and child that often includes
helping the child alter her behavior in some way

4. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-4
Developmentally Appropriate
Discipline Strategies
Specific actions that adults use in managing guidance
encounters
Positive strategies focusing on teaching and not on
punishment
Help children willingly accept good limits
Involves guiding all children effectively including
children whose families use negative, harsh discipline
Must be individually appropriate

5. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-5
Positive Guidance Strategies:
Description and Explanation

6. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-6
What All Positive Guidance
Strategies Do
Tune into a situation
Help children focus on the task at hand
Give good cues

7. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-7
Strategy: Teach helpful or
appropriate behavior
Purpose: teach helpful behavior and deemphasize
behaviors that cause problems for a child
Method used: modeling desired behavior
Steps in teaching more helpful behavior:
•Observe the child to figure out what it is that he
needs to know
•Identify the behavior causing the problem
•Identify a skill that would be more helpful
•Model more appropriate behavior

8. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-8
Strategy: Set up practice sessions &
give ‘on-the-spot’ guidance
Purpose: to give the child a chance to practice a
newly learned skill with guidance
How to do this:
•Teach the new skill first
•Practice the skill with the child
•Give appropriate feedback
•Observe the child as he words with other children
•Helping he child strengthen a newly learned skill

9. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-9
Strategy: Give signals or cues for
appropriate behavior
Purpose: to help children remember to use the
appropriate behavior
Steps in giving signals or cues
•Identify the skill for which you will use a signal or cue
•Figure out what would be a logical signal
•Observe the child for when the appropriate skill
should be used
•Whenever possible, give the signal just before the
new behavior should occur and the child has forgotten

10. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-10
Strategy:
Change something about a setting
Purpose: figure out what you can do about a situation
that will help a child be safe or to enable the child to
use a more helpful behavior
Ways to change something about a situation:
•Change the physical environment or time schedule
•Increase options available to a child
•Decrease options available to a child

11. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-11
Strategy: Ignore behavior (only
when it is appropriate to do so)
Purpose: to change the adult’s behavior
•Do not ignore certain behaviors
•Do not ignore behavior that endangers anyone,
including the child herself
•Do not ignore behavior that damages or destroys
property or that could potentially destroy property
•Do not ignore rude, embarrassing, intrusive, or
unduly disruptive behavior

12. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-12
Strategy: Ignore behavior (only
when it is appropriate to do so)
Guideline for ignoring behavior
–Pinpoint the behavior that you have been paying
attention to inappropriately
–Explain briefly to the child that you will stop
paying attention to the behavior
–Be prepared.
–Decide to thoroughly ignore the behavior
–Teach and encourage a more helpful skill along
with the ignore strategy

13. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-13
Strategy: Redirect children’s behavior-
divert and distract the youngest child
Purpose: to distract a very young child from a forbidden or
dangerous activity and then to divert her to a different activity
Things to keep in mind:
Responsible caregivers understand that they perform most of an
infant’s or a young toddler’s ego functions
Avoid a power struggle when stopping dangerous behavior
Be prepared to act quickly when working with infants and
toddlers
Steps in diversion and distraction
Identify for yourself the things you do not want a baby or toddler
to do because it is dangerous
Immediately do something to distract an infant or toddler from
the forbidden activity
Decide whether to tell an infant or toddler not to do whatever it
is that is dangerous

14. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-14
Positive Guidance Strategies: Redirect
children’s behavior-make substitutions
when dealing with older children
Purpose: form of redirection in which an adult shows
a somewhat older child how to perform the same
activity or type of activity in a more acceptable and
safer way
Steps used in substitution:
Specify the activity that needs substitution
Develop a substitution: a similar activity or the same
activity done more safely
Present the substitution to the child
Be prepared for the child to test your substitution

15. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-15
Strategy: Listen actively
Purpose: careful, accurate listening to a child’s
feelings, used when a child owns a problem
Things to remember about active listening:
• Listen carefully
• Wait until the child finishes speaking, without
interrupting
• Try to understand what the message means
• Listen for what the child is feeling
• Suspend judgment
• Avoid preaching, giving advice, or trying to persuade
the child to feel differently
• Merely reflect your perception of a child’s feelings

16. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-16
Strategy: Deliver I-Messages
 Purpose: used when the adult owns the problem;
give information; communicate feelings in a
respectful way; give the child a chance to change her
behavior
 Steps in constructing a good I-message
1.Name the exact behavior causing the behavior.
Give observable data about the child’s behavior
2.Tell the child how you felt but do not accuse the
child of causing your feelings
3.Tell the child how to change things
 Things to avoid in constructing I-messages
Avoid accusing or blaming the child
Do not induce guilt
Avoid telling the child that he caused your feeling

17. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-17
Strategy: Teach conflict resolution
(problem solving)
 Purpose: achieve a mutually agreeable solution to a
problem without resorting to the use of power
 Steps in using the no-loss method of conflict resolution:
1. Identify and define the conflict in a non-accusatory way
2. Invite children to participate in fixing the problem
3. Generate possible solutions with the child
4. Examine each idea for merits and drawbacks, with the
children decide which plan to try
5. Put the plan into action
6. Follow up. Evaluate how well the solution worked

18. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-18
Strategy: Prevent overstimulation.
Teach calming techniques
Purpose: to look beyond or under the visible
behavior, to detect the cause of a behavior
Suggestions:
• Observe carefully, noting signs of stress or anxiety
• Decide whether to use active listening, to decrease
stimulation, or to teach/carry out a calming technique
• Decide whether to change something about the
classroom to decrease stress

19. Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
5-19
Strategy: Help children save face and
preserve their dignity
Purpose: to treat children respectfully no matter what
positive strategy is used
How adults can do this
• Show respect for children by taking their perspective
• Once the positive disciple strategy is finished, let the
episode become history and allow the child to get on
with things
• Do not flaunt your power
• End the interaction quickly, simply, and gracefully
• Help the child deal with the root of the upset