Educators learn how to deal with unruly children
Posted on Friday, August 8, 2008
SPRINGDALE - The director of a Colorado center that provides therapy services for young children dealing with emotional and mental health issues spoke about his methods to local teachers and mental health professionals Thursday.
Barry Chaloner, director of the Center for Early Intervention in Durango, Colo., was brought in to conduct a three-day workshop at the Holiday Inn in Springdale by Ozark Guidance Center. Based in Springdale, Ozark Guidance provides a variety of mental health and counseling services.
Chaloner's seminar was targeted for elementary, pre-kindergarten and preschool teachers. Those who attended the workshop received credit for professional development.
As part of the workshop, Chaloner showed footage of times when he interacted with students as they were beginning to behave in an aggressive manner.
There isn't always a definitive right or wrong answer for dealing with a child's misbehavior, he said. He told the teachers," You'll have to take what works for you and what doesn't."
Chaloner said he believes in zero tolerance regarding violence against people, saying that acts must get some sort of response. One of the videos showed him making a young boy change seats after the boy pinched another student on the neck.
"You can't allow real violence to occur," he said. "You really need to respond to it. It has to be a meaningful (response )."
He said he also thinks teachers need to be consistent in setting limits on what is acceptable behavior and that rules should be "simple, clear and concrete."
He thinks social and emotional development are almost as important as academics in early childhood education, he said. Part of an instructor's job is to be able to process what a child is feeling, he said.
While a teacher cannot allow a student to be violent and destructive, there are times where children are angry, Chaloner said. Depending on the context, there may be ways in which they can be allowed to express their frustrations rather than glossing over them, he said.
"Can you imagine going to a counselor and them saying, ' I only want to hear nice things about you' ? "he said.
Dina Rega, director of marketing for Ozark Guidance, said the organization tries to offer training programs for area educators from time to time. Such programs are offered on an irregular basis as funding allows, she said.
"We try to do things like that for our (school ) partnerships," she said.
Besides the Springdale facility, Ozark Guidance Center has satellite offices in Bentonville, Berryville, Fayetteville, Huntsville and Siloam Springs. A year ago, the center's School Based Ser vices in Fayetteville moved into a building at 60 W. Sunbridge Drive.
Rega said the center is making plans to expand its Fayetteville office to offer more day treatment services for students.
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