1. Guidance and Discipline
A Model for School Age Child Care Programs

2. High Quality Out-of-School Time Programs
Promote children’s emotional and social development as well as their academic achievement
Children have better peer relationships, emotional adjustment and conduct in school.

3. How Do We Make This Happen ?
We must have thoughtful,
consistent, positive approaches to child guidance which are appropriate to the age and individual needs of
children.

4. Knowing What’s Developmentally Appropriate
To provide positive guidance, school age program staff must have a sound understanding of the stages of children’s growth and development. Staff needs to understand that children’s growth and development occurs in stages that blend together to form a continuum of learning.
Not all children develop at the same rate.

5. 5 to 7 year olds may: Think through problems in their minds
Begin to increase attention span
Have difficulty controlling their behavior in groups
Like teamwork but may disagree about the rules and what is fair
Become increasingly independent
Hide their feelings, fears and worries from adults

6. 8 to 11 year olds may:
Negotiate and compromise with peers and have expanded reasoning skills for problem solving
Develop their own games with complicated rules and may argue when they think someone has broken the rules
Learn to use good judgment
Learn to accept responsibility for their actions
Do more and more on their own. Without the need for adult supervision and direction

7. 12 to 14 year olds may: Negotiate, compromise and solve problems
Test program rules and adult authority and talk back to staff members
Mimic Teenage behaviors
Use profanity in regular conversations with peers (rather than in anger) to be “cool”
Test the limits of their physical skills
Begin to think in abstract terms and consider the consequences of their actions

8. Prevent Problem from the Start
Research shows attempts to punish and shame children into different behaviors are ineffective.
Shaming and punitive measures most often have the opposite effect-they escalate the very behaviors they seek to eliminate

9. What Does Work?
Positive, consistent, and firm guidance that both models and teaches these sought after behaviors
Asses your program environment, daily schedule and the rules you expect children to follow
Incorporate program activities that promote positive social interaction and empathy for others

10. Fundamental Expectations
Children should be offered the power to choose what they are going to do to correct a situation. The adult role is to guide not punish
When children need a cooling off period the teacher might say, “You seem upset. Would you like to have some quiet time or do you want to continue working with us on this activity?”
If it clear the child needs a cooling off period the teacher might say “Would like to cool off out here or in the Director’s office?”

11. Some Causes of Challenging Behaviors
Child is seeking adult attention – to turn this around staff should give attention for positive behavior
Physical Conditions: Tiredness, getting sick, ADD, LD – these should be considered and addressed
Child’s challenging behavior may indicate his/her desire to have more control over life circumstances – allowing for choices and appropriate decision-making may help

12. Consistent Challenging Behaviors
When a child exhibits challenging behaviors a meeting should take place with parents, school age child care staff and possibly school staff to discuss causes of behavior and develop a behavior and safety plan to reduce the problem behavior and encourage more appropriate behavior.
The child should be involved in developing the plan

13. In Conclusion… Overall adults should model appropriate behavior
Adults need to respond appropriately and guide children toward safe choices and behaviors
This happens through the relationships we form with children.
This takes time!

14. Resources:
GuidanceSchoolAgePaper2.pdf
Kohn, A (2006). Beyond discipline: From compliance to community