BOSTON — The six toddlers in the “Bears” classroom at the Ellis Early Learning center were hard at play when, suddenly, a tower of large, brightly-colored plastic blocks crashed to the ground. The children froze as the little boy who had just built the tower burst into tears.
“Look, he’s sad!” their teacher said gently as she kneeled next to the 2-year-old. “What can we do to make him feel better?”
One little girl padded over and gently touched his arm. The boy looked up and did what many frustrated, unpredictable toddlers do: He bit her.
As the little girl erupted in tears, the teacher swooped in calmly and hugged her. “You can say, ‘That hurt!’” she instructed. “You need to be gentle,” she reminded the boy.
Biting — and the big emotions that cause it — are commonplace in toddler classrooms. And now, thanks to a new initiative at this Boston-based child care program, teachers have a unified strategy both for addressing the problematic behavior and teaching the toddlers to recogni..
- Monday, May 20, 2024