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Unregistered 07:15 PM 09-14-2010
I have been a toddler/preschool teacher for many years now. I want to let both the biters and the victims parents know that we spend our entire day with your children and care for them very much. We don't want to see the victims injured hurting or upset and we don't want to see the biters frustrated and upset. We are not in the childcare career for the money, although tuition for most centers is very high we do not get paid well at all. We choose this career because we love children and enjoy helping/watching them learn and grow. In an ideal classroom all of the children would be happy and gentle to their "friends" for the entire day. But in a realistic classroom there are 9 children in 9 different mindframes throught the day. One minute the children could be thoroughly enjoying singing the abc's and a second later 2 of the children may be crying one of the children may be trying to hit and or bite their friend and the others may still be sitting enjoying singing. We shadow the biters to the best of our ability however it only takes half a second for a biter to bite. We understand the frustrations from both the biters parents and the victims parents. Belive me, we feel for both of you!! The most important aspect of preventing biting is communication with the staff members in your childs center. It is also very important to remember that consistancy is EVERYTHING. If your childs center is using "sitting out time" and you are doing something different at home the child is not going to understand either consequence. It is also very important to remember to be patient, biting is NOT going to stop overnight. We all wish that it could be this way but it is an unrealistic expectation. We understand that you (both biters parents and victims parents) are very frustrated with this behavior and believe me we get frustrated sometimes as well. It is important not to show the child that you are frustrated, show them with words and facial expressions that you are "not happy" and "sad" that they are biting and HURTING their friends. To the victim we show comfort understanding and most importantly love! I hope that this has helped mostly with the parents who's children are in daycare centers to understand where we the care providers are coming from.
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