Discipline Statement
Discipline is a process of guiding behavior. It encourages children to be sensitive and cooperative with others. We feel that children should be guided in their behavior by positive example. We explain the rules to children in ways they can understand as situation come up.
We use praise as efforts as possible to acknowledge children’s effort to behave appropriately. When a child misbehaves we gently move her/him from the situation and explain in simple terms why that behavior is not allowed.
Guidance Strategies
It is important that the caregiver ‘sets the stage’ for a positive atmosphere and maximum opportunities for desirable behavior.
This will be done by:
- Explaining to the children what behavior will be acceptable and explaining the reason for the limits, doing so in a positive way.
- Focusing on the child’s behavior, rather than on the child. Ex; I like the way you apologize to your friend.
- Allowing the children time to respond to the expectations.
- Reinforcing appropriate behavior. Ex; use walking feet inside the daycare.
- Being willing to listen and respond in a fair and supportive manner.
- Observing children in order to anticipate potential difficulties.
Unacceptable Practices
According to First Steps' Childcare policy and the guidelines laid out by ministry of health, we insure that no child enrolled at the daycare is subjected to:
- Corporal punishment i.e. shoving, hitting, shaking, spanking Harsh, belittling, or degrading treatment, whatever verbal, emotional, or physical, that would humiliate the child or undermine the child’s self respect.
- Confinement, unsupervised separation from others, physical restraint as punishment
- Depriving children of meals, snacks, rest or necessary use of the toilet as punishment.
(These points adhere to section 27(b) of Child Care Regulations.)
B.C Ministry of health website:
www.health.gov.bc.ca
Intervention Strategies
One or more of the following strategies will be used to help create a positive climate and minimize problems in a supportive, rather than punitive way:
- By establishing eye contact and calling the child’s name in a calm controlled voice to gain a child’s attention.
- By remaining near the child in situations where he/she may be
losing self-control. - Children will be reminded of limits taking their feelings into consideration.
- For younger children or children with limited attention span and verbal abilities, we will attempt to change the behavior by distracting or diverting the child.
- Verbal and/or physical assistance will be shown by modeling problem solving if a child is discouraged or frustrated.
- Children will be offered choices in a non-threatening and non-punitive way to assist them in meeting expectations or to p reinforce limits.
- We will clarify the inevitable or unavoidable outcome of the behavior to the child.
- If the child is unable to resolve a problem or take responsibility for their actions, they will be re-directed to another activity, or in special circumstances, be limited in the use of a piece of equipment.
- If all else fails, the child will be removed from the situation in a way that ensures that the 'time out' is a positive learning experience:
(a) Prior to the use of ‘time out’ the child will be given an explanation of what it means and what it involves.
(b) The ‘time out’ place will be located within the play area, where they can still be supervised, but far enough from the activity.
(c) The child will be allowed to determine when he/she can return to the activity.
(d) For pre-schoolers the ‘time out’ period will be no more than one minute per year of age, to a maximum of five (5) minutes.
(e) Appropriate or acceptable behavior of the child following ‘time out’ will receive praise. - On a rare occasion where a child loses control and could possibly
injure him or herself or others. We may be required to hold the child to soothe them until self-control is gained. - When a child is ready, they will be provided an opportunity to make amends.
When child refuses to abide by our rules or is being a threat to both him / her self and to other children, it shows that the child is “hard to manage”. In this case the manager or the person in charge will handle this situation by letting the parents know and getting their assistance by:
- An appointment will be set up to talk with parents.
- Describe to parents the behavior we have witnessed and ask how they would have deal with similar situations at home.
- If the parents have the same problem, we will ask them about the steps they have taken to correct the inappropriate behavior. If nothing has been done, ask how they plan to help their child.
- At this point it is best to set a dead line for the parents or ways by which we feel the behavior should be corrected. We will keep tabs on the situation by requesting notes from the child’s doctor or specialist. It is the parents’ responsibility to seek help and support for their child.
- If the parents refuse to get help and/ or the situation does not improve, we may have to ask parents to remove their child from the center.
Safety
In order to provide the safest environment we have to take the following steps:
- All medication are kept in a locked medical box
- Fire and earthquake drills are held twice a month to ensure that the children learn to react in case of an emergency. (it is strongly recommended for parents to practice as well.)
- We maintain an up to date list of nearest reliable fire depts., hospitals, police depts., taxi services, the emergency and poison control.
- All staffs are required to have their immunizations up to date.
- All staffs have first aid training CPR.
- To avoid any potential hazard we check all indoors, outdoors area of the daycare on a daily basis to make sure it is safe.
- Equipment and supplies are checked and cleaned daily as well.
In the event that is a natural disaster we would like to assure
parents that we have plenty of flashlights, bottled water, blankets,
canned fruits and vegetables. Our focus will be to keep the children
occupied and entertained while being as safe as possible.
All medication are to be kept in a locked container and no poisonous substances or potentially hazardous object is accessible to the children.
Please see important safety updates below:
Release of Child Policy
First Steps Daycare will only release the child to the following person(s):
- The child’s parents.
- When applicable the child’s custodial parent.
- The emergency contact person.
- Any other guardian whom the parents by way of writing authorization, allow us to release the child (picture ID required), we reserve the right to keep the child at the daycare if we are not completely certain about any person who has come to pick up the child. The parents will be contacted immediately if this happens.