Content Area IV: Interactions with Children

Establish supportive relationships with children and guide them as individuals and as part of a group.

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Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5

Level 1

• Uses positive behavior guidance.
• Avoids actions that would cause physical and emotional harm.
• Provides appropriate supervision.
• Understands and supports child-directed play.
• Interacts in a manner reflecting respect for self and others.
• Addresses behaviors or situations, rather than labeling the child.
• Shows respect for children in all situations.

Level 2

• Modifies play that is inappropriate for the learning environment.
• Establishes and communicates limits for acceptable behavior.
• Responds to children’s behavior in ways that encourage self-regulation.
• Provides a supportive environment in which children can learn and practice appropriate and acceptable behaviors as individuals and as a group.
• Uses a variety of positive direct and indirect guidance methods and avoids negative methods.
• Provides an environment that helps all children to know, accept, and take pride in their identities and to develop a sense of belonging and inter-dependence.
• Builds a trusting relationship with children, providing physical and emotional security.
• Maintains professionalism and respect for children when communicating with other adults about children’s behavior.
• Reports positively to families about children’s progress and challenges.
• Uses information from parents to inform interactions with children.

Level 3

• Adapts the learning environment and curriculum to minimize potential for challenging behaviors, especially in multi-age settings.
• Actively communicates with children and provides opportunities and support for children to understand, acquire, and use verbal and nonverbal means of communicating thoughts and feelings.
• Uses strategies to assist children in learning to express emotions in positive ways, solve problems, and make decisions.
• Gives, tells, and shows children acceptable alternatives to unacceptable or undesirable behaviors.
• Encourages children to take initiative in generating ideas, problems, questions, and relationships.
• Facilitates smooth transitions of individuals and groups from activity to activity.
• Alerts children to changes in activities or routines well in advance.
• Builds relationships with parents that allow for constructive communication about children’s behavior.

Level 4

• Demonstrates realistic expectations about children’s attention spans, interests, social abilities, and physical needs.
• Understands the influence of the physical setting, schedule, routines, and transitions on children and uses these experiences to promote children’s development and learning.
• Communicates with families regarding areas of concern, developing cooperative strategies to manage problems.
• Facilitates group membership and decision-making among children.
• Involves children in establishing guidelines and limits for behavior.
• Facilitates smooth transitions of children from one age group to another age group.
• Relates guidance practices to knowledge of children’s personalities, developmental levels, and developmental or environmental stressors.
• Uses the learning methods of open-ended questioning, group discussion, problem solving, cooperative play, and guided experiments.
• Demonstrates knowledge of instructional and guidance practices for integrating children with disabilities.
• Proactively encourages and reinforces positive adult-child interactions within the family.

Level 5

• Develops written policies for effective child guidance.
• Understands and describes the principles for intervention and conflict resolution in children’s play and learning.
• Recognizes and advocates family-teacher partnerships to establish positive interaction patterns in program, school, and home.
• Develops individual guidance plans, using relevant professionals and family members for support as needed.
• Develops cooperative skills that focus on working in pairs or small groups, negotiating, compromising, and problem solving.
• Uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
• Analyzes, evaluates, and applies current theory and research on individual and group guidance.