The Environment

The Scenario:

Diana, the instructional leader, is in a coaching session with you, her coach, and is describing a 1-on-1 check-in meeting she recently had with one of her educators on staff who teaches toddlers. There are two toddler classrooms.

Diana describes her staff member reporting that she is struggling with the behavior of two of her children. Every morning when the children are given free play time she notices that one toddler races over to the dramatic play area, which has a variety of props, and tends to grab toys away from other children, saying “mine”. This can escalate into children crying and sometimes hitting each other. Diana’s staff member also describes a different child who keeps running and falling down or falling into other children.

Diana starts to describe the advice she gave to her staff member, all of the advice seems to be focused on calming down and problem solving strategies a child can take after they’ve engaged in the challenging behavior. You as the coach are wondering if there are changes to the environment that Diana and the educator can make that would prevent the challenging behavior from ever arising.