This document summarizes a situation where two children, Damian and Carl, were fighting over a picture book. The guidance strategy chosen was giving the children choices. The educator would present Damian and Carl with two activity options, such as drawing or playing with a toy farmhouse, and allow them to choose individually or share. To prevent further conflict, indirect guidance such as providing similar picture books for all children would be used to limit fighting over the same item.

1. Reflective Practice Guidance Logs
Part 1 – Objective Observation
(Clearly identify the problem. Examine the “context” of the problem)
Date:
Situation # 3
Damian, Age 2
Damian was sitting on the sofa and looking at a picture book. Another child, Carl came
over to Damian and said, “This is my place.” Carl pushed Damian and told him to go
away.
Part 2 – Decision
(Clearly identify the guidance strategy and state why the chosen strategy is
appropriate for this child and the situation)
The guidance strategy I would choose is choice. According to the notes “Choices are
when the ECE provides two options to the child and allows the child to make a decision.”
The book stresses the fact that adults need to teach young children how to make wise
choices and what exactly constitutes a wise choice. Also, allowing children to make these
decisions on their own helps them develop their personalities and character as well as
providing them with self esteem. Decision making additionally allows them to feel as if
they have some control in their worlds. Learning centers and classroom settings aid in the
child’s development of realistic decision making. In this situations, adults can teach a
child what is a wise choice and what would not be considered a wise choice and these
settings can help translate these decisions into real life settings. “During choice time,
children work alone or with other children.” “Each center has a variety of materials

2. directly related to the center, and children choose from available materials” (Guidance of
young children, pg.85).
I have chosen “choices” for the strategy because in this situation, two children where
fighting over a picture book. Rather than fighting and pushing which may results in both
children getting hurt, I would choose two separate activities that both children could play
with. In this situation, I would have two options for Damian and Carl to choose from and
I would let Damian and Carl choose fairly amongst themselves, which activity they
would prefer to play with rather than fighting and pushing each other over the picture
book.
Part 3 – Actions
(Clearly discuss your actions (what you would do and say)
I would first have to make eye contact with Damian. I would use a loud voice and say
“Damian, rather than fighting over the picture book with Carl, is there anything else you
would rather play with or is there a way that you and Carl can share the picture book”. I
would also talk to Carl in the same way and say “Carl, pushing is wrong. Damian had the
book first and rather than pushing him, you can ask him politely if he would like to share
with you. Or, perhaps we can find another activity for you. Is there anything else you
would like to do?” I would present the children with other options. I would say to both of
them, “I have two activities that you can choose from. Would you like to draw a picture
or would you like to play with the toy farmhouse? Would you like to play together and
share or would you like to play by yourselves.”

3. How would you prevent this situation from happening again, using indirect
guidance?
I would prevent this situation from happening again by getting similar picture books for
all the children to look at, rather than them fighting over the same picture book. I would
have plenty of options for each child. This would hopefully limit the amount of conflict
between the children.