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[QUOTE]Originally posted by AGDee
[B]Ok, hypothetical situation here... (and I worked on child and adolescent inpatient psych units for many years so I have seen this type of behavior first hand).
Little Johnny Doe is 4 years old and is throwing a temper tantrum. He is throwing blocks all over the room. He has been redirected and told to take a time out, but he does not comply. There are 25 other kids in the room and he's throwing these blocks really hard. Then he starts biting himself. What do you do?
Or, two kids are locked in a fight and you have to get them separated. No amount of verbal redirection is working. What do you do?
Granted, this was a psychiatric hospital but we were trained in methods of restraint, approved by the mental health department because these methods would not injure the child (or the staff). They included approaching the child from behind, securing his arms, crossed in front of him, elbows locked so his arms wouldn't be injured and leaning back slightly to put him off balance. You would sometimes have to hold this child in this position until he calmed down while talking to them in a calm and reassuring voice (and neurologically, this position slows the Central Nervous System and helps them calm down). Sometimes, to protect the child, or other children, you have to gently restrain them.
They can't just let kids run wild and endanger themselves or others. The typical child would NEVER need this type of behavior managment, but I would think that legally, they need to point out that they have a right ( even an obligation?) to do this. If Johnny Doe beat the crap out of your child because the staff weren't allowed to put hands on him, you'd be pretty upset.
Dee
While I personally agree sometimes you might need it,according to the regulations of the state of Kansas,any sort of disciplinary restraint is a violation and one of the most serious at that.We could lose any state funding we get or even worse,be closed down completely.For some facilities,a good portion of their income is state funded families and the loss of that is devastating.Believe it or not some facilities are so PC that they don't even tell children no any more.They just redirect.We are not one of them.We have no problem telling a child no. That is ridiculous.
In the times when I and my staff have had to seperate a fistfight,we generally put ourselves in the middle of the two combatants.That way we are not touching them and they do stop because they know better than to hit an adult.I don't care what they do to their parents but they won't be physically violent with my staff.We tell the parents straight out,if your child is violent,they are gone from the facility.It seems everything comes down to being a liability issue.On both sides.That is why we won't tolerate it.We don't want to put other children and our license at risk.
As a side note,I think the not telling the kids no,affects other areas as well.My drivers tell me that they see kids on other daycare vans out of their seats and jumping around and being ridiculous.Our kids would get one warning,in front of their parents and if it happens again,they will find another way to transport their child.It isn't worth the risk.
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