Tips to Handle Violent Children in Preschool

Preschool children may show excessive aggression due to many reasons. Most common reason of violence may be that a kid may become annoyed on being sent to school. Kids may show violence and aggression by either fighting with other kids or biting others. In some cases, they can even want to damage a property. If you are a preschool teacher, you will be definitely aware of this. Every preschool class has one or more such students who are extra violent. Aggression in young kids should be taken seriously and being a teacher, you should learn to manage such children. Here are some tips in this regard:

• Before taking any action, observe and monitor the aggressive kid regularly and carefully. Try to determine causes and issues that make him violent. You will find over-stimulation, frustration, stress and lack of speaking ability as some of major causes.
• After knowing reasons of aggression, tell that child to stop this behavior at the least sign of anger. While asking him to do so, keep yourself calm, firm and patient. Do not raise your voice while talking with a kid especially the aggressive one.
• Start with a slight punishment. Give punishment of time-out to that kid for not more than 10 minutes. These ten minutes should begin after the kid is seated separately and became quiet. After this punishment, do not allow him to rejoin his friends. Instead ask him that he has to play alone for 10 to 15 minutes.
• After this light punishment, remind him that he should behave in an acceptable manner if he wants to rejoin his friends. Younger kids immediately learn from such reactions of teachers. Also teach them not to show same behavior again. For example, if kid has bitten someone, tell him that biting is bad and it hurts others. In most cases, a kid will understand and not do it again.
• In this whole process, involve parents also and ask them what they do as a reaction of such aggressive behavior of kids. Assure them for your support and communicate with them to devise better ways to deal with this problem. Ask parents to employ some disciplinary measures at home also while in school, you can do your best to handle them.

Handling aggression and violence in preschool kids is not difficult. All it needs is parents support as well as appropriate measures taken by teachers.