Spotlight on Young Children: Challenging Behavior

Introduction

Charis L. Wahman and Janice K. Lee

Stacey, a new preschool teacher, looks around the room as the children transition from morning group time to center activities. She feels flustered and overwhelmed. David has fallen on the floor, kicking and screaming as he reaches to take his favorite truck from a peer. Charlotte yells loudly while flinging a red paintbrush across the morning carpet. Phillip runs away from the adults to the classroom sink to play splash and dumps a bucket of water onto the floor. A few children giggle, pushing and pulling each other around the carpet. Stacey stands up, places her hands on her hips, and lets out a big sigh. Her coteacher’s expression displays equal feelings of exasperation.

Later in the afternoon while the children are napping, Stacey reflects on the morning’s events and asks herself a number of questions. What are the behaviors that are most challenging to her and the other staff? What is the most efficient way they could prevent those behaviors from occurring? How can she teach skills that meet different needs across specific routines and activities? How might she support the children in her classroom who demonstrate persistent challenging behavior? And what self-care strategies can she put in place to keep herself going each day?

Addressing young children’s challenging behavior is a daily practical concern for teachers like Stacey, and it has long been a primary concern within the field of early childhood education (NRC & IOM 2000). Challenging behavior—that is, any repeated pattern of behavior, or perception of behavior, that interferes with or is at risk of interfering with optimal learning or engagement in prosocial interactions with peers and adults (Smith & Fox 2003, 6)—is not uncommon. Although few studies have addressed overall prevalence, it has been estimated that roughly 10 to 14 percent of children from birth to 5 years old demonstrate serious behavioral concerns (Brauner & Stephens 2006). This percentage is likely to increase given the increasing numbers of children with adverse childhood experiences and/or disabilities entering early learning environments (Giovanelli et al. 2020; Lipscomb et al. 2021; NCES 2023) and the residual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young children’s social and emotional well-being (Sun et al. 2022; Weiland et al. 2021).

Early childhood educators should expect challenging behavior from young children based on their current development (Denham 2018). Young children have not yet been taught appropriate behavior, and teaching approaches and practices should integrate this understanding (Hemmeter & Conroy 2018). Cultivating relationally safe environments is a fundamental approach to addressing young children’s challenging behavior. Nevertheless, many early childhood educators struggle to address the behavioral needs of young children, and children who have experienced toxic stress or have disabilities are especially likely to face punishment and exclusionary discipline practices, including suspension and expulsion (OCR 2021; Zeng et al. 2019).

Exclusionary discipline causes lasting harm to children and their families (Doubet & Ostrosky 2015; Wahman et al. 2022). These practices, which are largely used in reaction to externalized challenging behavior (e.g., aggression, tantrums, noncompliance) and often impacted by implicit biases (Okonofua & Eberhardt 2015), do not provide children with access, participation, or supports (DEC & NAEYC 2009). Furthermore, use of exclusionary discipline practices in early learning programs correlates with an increased likelihood that children will be suspended or expelled again, drop out of high school, experience academic failure, and have contact with the criminal justice system (Stegelin 2018). The disproportionate impact of preschool suspension and expulsion on Black and Latino/a children (Gilliam et al. 2016; Meek et al. 2020) and children with disabilities (Novoa & Malik 2018) is another indication that teachers are inadequately prepared to meet the behavioral needs of young children and need systematic supports (Hoffman & Kuvalanka 2019).

Early childhood professionals trained in high-quality social and emotional practices use approaches based on an understanding of why a challenging behavior occurs. They implement responsive interactions, such as building trust and connections with children, identifying appropriate skills the child can use instead of the challenging behavior, and supporting teachers and families in implementing effective teaching strategies for those skills (Garrity et al. 2019). Evidence-based social and emotional interventions can serve as a protective factor for children, particularly for those experiencing adverse circumstances, because children learn skills that help them navigate stressful experiences (Austin, Lesak, & Shanahan 2020; Hemmeter & Conroy 2018).

Recognizing the importance of responsive frameworks and the detrimental impact of exclusionary discipline on young children, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Department of Education (ED; 2014) released a joint policy statement with the goal of preventing suspension and expulsion and highlighting evidence-based positive behavior intervention and support strategies. Over 30 organizations signed a statement in collective support of these recommendations (NAEYC 2017). Recently, a more updated version of the policy statement was released (HHS & ED 2023). Decades of research have documented the positive effects of tiered prevention frameworks on children’s behavioral outcomes (see, e.g., Fox, Strain, & Dunlap 2021; Hemmeter et al. 2016; Horner, Sugai, & Anderson 2010). For example, the multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), drawn from a public health model, organizes strategies to help adults provide increasing levels of support for children (universal, targeted, and individualized).

Importantly, implementation of a tiered prevention framework using a team-based approach with early childhood educators, families, and related service personnel provides a more robust response system for intervention. These intervention practices include designing relationally safe and nurturing environments, partnering with families and school teams, social and emotional skill building, planned systematic instruction, and adapting practices to consider the cultures and contexts of children (Fox, Strain, & Dunlap 2021).

This volume brings together articles that highlight these strategies and further address topics for the field to promote evidence-based supports for young children with challenging behavior. The articles are grouped into three parts, each focusing on a different tier common to well-established and widely used social and emotional learning frameworks (e.g., Fox et al. 2003):

Part One: Preventive Practices

Part Two: Targeted Practices

Part Three: Intensive and Individualized Practices

Notably, each of the articles in this volume takes a strong stance against the use of punishment as discipline and advocates for approaches that encourage relationship-building and teaching children skills to decrease challenging behavior. The articles are accompanied by questions that promote reflection and application.

Many children and their families enter early learning environments with stories of survival. As you read these articles, consider your role in fostering healing-centered classrooms and how these practices honor the humanity in young children, center their voices, and allow them to be fully seen and heard.

REFERENCES

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Brauner, C.B., & C.B. Stephens. 2006. Estimating the Prevalence of Early Childhood Serious Emotional/Behavioral Disorders: Challenges and Recommendations. Public Health Reports 121 (3): 303–10.

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Hoffman, T.K., & K.A. Kuvalanka. 2019. Behavior Problems in Child Care Classrooms: Insights from Child Care Teachers. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth 63 (3): 259–68.

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Meek, S., L. Smith, R. Allen, E. Catherine, K. Edyburn, C. Williams, R. Fabes, K. McIntosh, E. Garcia, R. Takanishi, L. Gordon, O. Jimenez-Castellanos, M.L. Hemmeter, W. Gilliam, & R. Pontier. 2020. Start with Equity: From the Early Years to the Early Grades. Tempe: Arizona State University Children’s Equity Project and Bipartisan Policy Center. https://childandfamilysuccess.asu.edu/sites/default/files/2020-07/CEP-report-071520-FINAL.pdf.

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About the Editors

Charis L. Wahman, PhD, BCBA-D, is assistant professor of special education at Michigan State University. She also serves as a clinician in early care settings to support young children with social and emotional needs. Charis has conducted research, published articles, and presented on the social and emotional development of young children and families’ experiences with suspension and expulsion at national conferences.

Janice K. Lee, PhD, BCBA, is state coordinator for the Nevada Pyramid Model Partnership through the University of Nevada, Reno. In addition to conducting research and publishing articles on the pyramid model, she also provides training, coaching, consultation, and technical assistance on social and emotional skill development to teachers, practitioners, and families to prevent and address challenging behavior.

The photograph in this chapter comes from Getty Images.

PART ONE

Preventive Practices

An old adage says, you cannot give what you do not have. Teachers experiencing stress and burnout are less responsive to young children’s social and emotional development (Jeon et al. 2019). One fundamental aspect of preventive practices is that nurturing your own well-being enhances your capacity to care for children. Preventive practices also focus on building positive connections with all children, adapting strategies that consider the cultures and characteristics of children and their families, and attending to the environment to ensure that each of these practices are embedded across routines and transitions. With these goals, teachers nurture an environment that fosters relational healing, encourages positive behavior, and prevents challenging behavior from occurring.

The five articles in this part provide teachers with concrete strategies and examples for how to implement preventive practices in the classroom.

Katherine M. Zinsser, Susanne A. Denham, and Timothy W. Curby describe social and emotional learning as an ongoing process of reflection, knowledge, and awareness. Their article, Becoming a Social and Emotional Teacher: The Heart of Good Guidance, shows how teachers learn through intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships to take care of themselves physically and emotionally while also learning to connect with children who may demonstrate comfortable (positive) or uncomfortable (negative) emotions.

In Culturally Responsive Strategies to Support Young Children with Challenging Behavior, Charis L. Wahman and Elizabeth A. Steed share five strategies that promote positive teacher-child relationships, a core preventive practice that moderates the risk of early school failure for children with challenging behavior.

Similarly, Zeynep Isik-Ercan discusses the cultural appropriateness of children’s behavior across routines. "Culturally Appropriate Positive Guidance with Young