Interpreting and Responding to Classroom Behaviors: A Guide for Early Childhood Educators

I spend all my time with this kid!" is a typical teacher complaint when challenged by young children, who disrupt the classroom with rebellious, impulsive, worrisome, and/or odd behaviors. It is vital that teachers gain the skills to holistically decipher and respond to these complex classroom situations. By addressing the underlying meanings that motivate children's behaviors, teachers increase the opportunity for change within the classroom setting.

Focusing on communication, this book discusses practical ways to apply child developmental theories to help address common classroom situations, problems, and worries. It identifies new frameworks and rationales, such as the troubling child, the testing child, the worrying child, and the hiding child; describes the unique aspects of these children's communication; and offers an easy-to-use language for successful teacher intervention. It also provides an adaptable, week-by-week planning and intervention structure as a way of creating some balance between practicality and theory.