Preschools and Poor Behavior

Comment: This is absolutely true. When children start to act out it's time to pull in the family front door mat and calm things down. Running too many places too often is the one thing that exhausts children and displaces their play time. Children who are home more are happier. Children love being home.

Morris child-care group addresses preschool woes
Program to help workers deal with misbehavior started by United Way

BY VIDYA PADMANABHAN DAILY RECORD

United Way of Morris County kicked off a program on Wednesday to help childcare workers deal with an increasingly common problem -- misbehaving preschoolers.

Over the past two years, children who act out have emerged as "by far the No. 1, most pressing concern" of United Way's partner childcare centers, said Kathy Kwasnik, United Way's community impact manager.

The stresses of the modern living of parents may be affecting young children, and behaviors such as kicking, screaming, throwing things and biting may be signs of underlying distress, according to Kwasnik and Lorri Sullivan of Youth Consultation Service.

"For a lot of folks, both parents struggle to make ends meet," Kwasnik said. "It's a much crazier life than it was five or 10 years ago."

"The stress of the family will come out in some way in the child," Sullivan said.

Moreover, children are going to childcare centers at younger ages than before. As a result, childcare workers are observing behaviors that may have previously been confined to the home, Sullivan said.

Childcare staff have been finding that traditional methods of empathy and discipline don't work to quell toddlers'outbursts. The disruptive behavior may then lead to termination from childcare centers, a negative self-image, and a label of "difficult" before they even reach kindergarten, according to the program coordinators.

The Early Childhood Training Fellowship and Consultation Program will address the problem by working with some of the children, as well as equipping caregivers with coping skills, the coordinators said.

Training curriculum

The program started Wednesday with a presentation to the directors of the 17 participating childcare centers, which will be followed by six full-day training sessions for 25 selected childcare workers from October to December. The program also includes six months of on-site mental health consultations at two childcare centers, which are yet to be named.

The program also will provide on-site mental health consultations at select childcare centers. It was developed in conjunction with Youth Consultation Service, a New Jersey-based child welfare agency.