1. Why Guidance Matters
Chapter 1
from
Positive Child Guidance

2. Stressed families
• Working families – busy with demands of jobs
and homes
• Family structures – single parents, multiple
generations, etc.
• “Sandwich” generation – parents who have
the demands of children and their aging
parents
• Working parent guilt – primarily impacts
mothers

3. Our Role as Teachers
• Provide Developmentally Appropriate Practice
(DAP)
– Is it appropriate for each child and his/her
individual needs and interests?
– Is it supportive of each child’s family and is it
respectful of each child’s culture?
– Is it based on best practice and knowledge of child
development?

4. What we need
• Create activities and experiences that are DAP
• Provide materials that are DAP
• Have a solid knowledge of child development
(ages and stages) (NAEYC Key Element 1a)
• Understand individual differences in each child
(NAEYC Key Element 1b)
• Get to know families and their culture, values,
and expectations for their children
(NAEYC Key Element 1c)

5. The Core of DAP
• See p. 7 in your text – We will continue to talk
about these ideas, but I expect you to know
them as part of NAEYC standards. NAEYC
(National Association for the Education of
Young Children) is committed to providing the
best of research based practices to the
students of early childhood education and to
the front line of education of young children.

6. Our Role as Teachers (cont.)
• Provide parental support (NAEYC Key
Elements 2b, 2c)
– Help them understand age and developmentally
appropriate strategies and expectations.
– Communicate regularly
– Recognize and appreciate them as their child’s first
and foremost teacher

7. Our Role as Teachers (cont.)
• Provide specific and intentional guidance for
children (NAEYC Key Element 1b)
– Be intentional in providing social/emotional
development opportunities for young children
– Have realistic expectations and teach desired (DAP
always!) skills and behaviors

8. Who’s responsible?
• Families?
• Schools?
• Communities?
• Government?
• Who is responsible for the well-being of our
children? What is our ultimate goal as we guide
children, encourage appropriate behaviors, and
minimize inappropriate behaviors? What is the
role of various types of discipline? What do we
really mean by discipline?

9. Confused yet?
• Let’s look at specific vocabulary and concepts
– DAP – using what we know (based on research)
about how children learn and grow and “effective
early education practices” to “promote optimal
learning and development” (NAEYC Standard 1:
Promoting child development and learning)
– Child guidance – an approach to providing
external support and interaction with children as
they naturally develop towards intrinsic
motivation, self-control, and self-discipline

10. Vocabulary & Concepts (cont.)
• Discipline – from the root word “disciple”; means
“to teach” or “to train”, but is often used
interchangeably with “punishment”. For our
purposes, we are going to use “discipline” more
from the perspective of “teaching” and “guiding”.
• Child development – biological, psychological,
and emotional changes that occur from birth
through adolescence. While each child develops
at his or her individual rate, there is a natural
progression of development that is universal.

11. Vocabulary & Concepts (cont.)
• Social development –the development of skills as
they relate to a child’s interactions (external) with
others (adults and peers)
• Emotional development – the development of
skills as they relate to understanding and properly
controlling one’s emotions (internal)
• These are often used in conjunction with one
another. Other similar terms that may be used
are Emotional Intelligence and Executive
Function.

12. Working with Families
• Positives –
– Open communication
– Support system and teamwork
– Sharing of ideas and successes
• Pitfalls to avoid
– Failure to respect ALL parents and types of
families
– Us vs. them mentality

13. Some Theory
• Bronfenbrenner – ecological systems theory –
each system influences a child’s development
• Behaviorist learning theory – B.F. Skinner –
external reinforcers can control behavior
(rewards and punishments)
• Do rewards and punishment prevent people
from developing an intrinsic skills of self-
control and self-discipline and create people
who won’t do anything until they know what
the payoff is?

14. Bottom Line
• While external controls may be beneficial in some
instances, we must be intentional in our
strategies for positive child guidance
• We want children to become self-directed
• We want children to rely less and less on others
for managing their behaviors
• More effort on the front end allows us to be
proactive and to create a positive environment
that supports “healthy, respectful, supportive,
and challenging learning environments” (NAEYC
Key Element 1c)