9.5: Behavior affected by environments
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Pause to Reflect Can the environment influence a child’s behavior? Take a moment to reflect on the following scenarios:
What environmental changes might you make? |
As demonstrated in the scenarios, a poorly arranged physical setting, transitions that are not well planned, and quick teacher responses can trigger challenging behaviors. Both teachers and children can become frustrated. By altering floor plans, planning for each segment of the day, and thinking through the communication and interactions we will have with children, we can avoid many challenging behaviors.
All three aspects of the environment; physical space, social-emotional tone, and routine can affect children’s behavior. The environment sends very powerful messages about how to behave and feel.
Below is a chart of environmental modifications we can make to minimize certain behaviors by Dodge, Colker, and Heroman. [109]
Table \(\PageIndex{1}\): Environmental Modifications to Minimize Behaviors
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Behavior |
Possible Causes |
Changes to the Environment |
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Running in the classroom |
Too much space is open; the room is not divided into small enough areas; activity areas are not well defined. |
Use shelves and furniture to divide the space. Avoid open spaces that encourage children to run. |
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Fighting over toys |
Too many popular toys are one-of-a-kind; children are asked to share too often. |
Provide duplicates of toys. Show children when it will be their turns (e.g., use a sand timer or help children create a waiting list for turns). |
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Wandering around, inability to choose activities |
The room is too cluttered; choices are not clear; there is not enough to do, too much time. |
Get rid of clutter. Simplify the layout of the room and materials. Add more activity choices. Revisit schedule. |
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Becoming easily distracted; not staying with a task |
Areas are undefined and open; children can see everything going on in the room; materials are too difficult or children are bored with them. |
Use shelves to define areas. Separate noisy and quiet areas. Assess children’s skills and select materials they can use in interesting ways. |
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Continually intruding on other’s workspace |
Space is limited; poor traffic patterns prevent children from spreading out. |
Define work areas for children (e.g., use masking tape or sections of cardboard for block building, and provide trays or placemats for toys). Limit the number of areas open at one time to allow more space for each. |
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Misusing materials and resisting clean up |
Children do not know how to use materials appropriately; materials on shelves are messy; the displays are disorderly. |
Make a place for everything. Use picture and word labels to show where materials go. Provide consistent guidance on how to clean up. |
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Pause to Reflect The chart above focuses on the effect the physical environment has on behavior. Can you think of ways the social-emotional and temporal environments affect behavior as well? |
The physical spaces, the tone we set, and the routines we follow will have a major impact on the children we work with. By planning based on their ages and stages, individual strengths and family, cultural and community backgrounds we can create warm, secure spaces where children can engage in all types of learning through play, take safe risks, and maximize their learning and development. In the next chapter, we will be taking an in-depth look at the main activity that takes place in these spaces -- play.
This page has been edited by Alice Hale of Chabot College using the Libretext remixing tool.