Clearly the day care staff has made reasonable efforts to solve the problem and should be complimented for their efforts. But this child obviously has a serious behavior problem that exceeds the capabilities of the staff and requires the attention of a clinically-trained person. And to let the child remain in the setting, biting other children several times a day, is unfair to the other parents and their children who expect a reasonably safe day care environment. So the proper decision should be to drop the child from the program until this behavior problem is resolved.
--Dave
Mark A. Casteel wrote:
A former student from my developmental psych class contacted me via email last week with a problem she's having in the day care where she works. The problem involves a young girl who is biting other children. She indicated that they've tried time out (to no avail), and asked for suggestions. I told her to carefully observe the situations that seem to provoke the biting, and how she reacts while time out (to see if social reinforcement was occurring). I've copied her most recent reply below. Do any of you folks that have been involved in preschool care have any suggestions? -- Mark
Copied message: Thank you very much for responding, I have been paying attention this week
more closely to how the child has been acting. The time outs used on the
"problem child" are given directly after the biting has occurred. The biting
occurs mostly in the morning hours (a couple incidents have occurred in the
afternoon but not many). The child almost never is provoked in her actions, she
does it in a split second, and she is fast and hard. Biting first occurred o
the other children's hands and arms, but lately she has began to bite them
lower (chest and upper legs). We have been trying to look for causes for her
actions. The mother thought that it might be a lack of attention (ratio is 1
worker to 4 kids, we have 2 workers at all times and 6-8 children (ages 10
mon-almost 24 mon)., but the child gets a lot of attention (she could possibly
be wanting more, but with the ratio we give as much bonding time as possible).
Lately she has began biting to get her way at some occasions but on others she
seems to have no motive (bites right in front of the teachers). The child is
also not picking a particular child to bite, she has bitten at least every
child in the room 2 times if not more. Last week we were averaging 3 bites a
day. She has been biting off and on the past couple of weeks (about 3 months)
but the problem is getting out of control, mostly because she is being more
damaging (drawing blood, leaving marks).
Removing the child from the room could possibly work, but we are not aloud to
do that. We have tried a couple different techniques. Time outs have been used
in a chair in the corner (she refused to sit unless someone was right on top of
her giving her direct attention (reinforcing the wrong behavior, because she
was getting attention for misbehaving). We tried a play pen but she would
always find things to play with (so it became almost a reinforcement because
she could move around and still play a little). One thing we found that worked
the best (but did not stop the behavior)was putting her in a high chair facing
the wall, but that associates the eating chair with bad behavior not eating.
She is being made to sit for a minute in a half if not more.
During time outs the child normally tries to get attention by talking or crying
or trying to get up. She has resorted to swinging her arms trying to hit who
ever is putting her in time out. She has figured out the "I Sorry" phrase and
"No Bite" but that is just a learned response. Her mother talks at her a lot,
so she has learned what she is expected to say. Another one of the workers
noticed that she is worse just after being with her stepbrother (first grade).
Any other suggestions ? thank you very much
********************************* Mark A. Casteel, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Penn State York 1031 Edgecomb Ave. York, PA 17403 (717) 771-4028 *********************************
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David E. Campbell, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Psychology Phone: 707-826-3721 Humboldt State University FAX: 707-826-4993 Arcata, CA 95521-8299 www.humboldt.edu/~campbell/psyc.htm
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