Strategies for Working with Youth.
Self, Space, Time and Task Far to often when we have a child that is acting out, we often look at the child’s behavior as something that they are doing for no reason. When you stop and analyze the WHYS of that child’s behavior you are more able to settle and calm the child down. Maybe your child has come to you acting out. But instead of looking at WHAT the child is doing, ask yourself WHY the child is acting out. Sometimes just pulling the child aside and just talking to them may reveal the WHYs to WHAT they are doing. By addressing the WHYs of that child’s behavior we may be better able to help that child calm down. When looking for the WHYs of a child’s behavior ask yourself four important questions? SELF: When planning your activities for the children, have you taken the time you need for yourself? Have you taken all the time you personally need to come into work doing your best? Have you gotten all the rest needed to handle the activity level of your children? When trying to understand WHY a child is acting out, you may find that it is NOT the child having the issues, but yourself. Something from a previous day you may have carried over with you to work while the child is just doing what that child normally does. Sometimes our personal issues come with us to work and can inadvertently cause the very problems we seek to avoid. SPACE: When planning activities for your children, have you planned for the use of space properly? Have you taken into account the use of space by other groups and other people? Have you made back-up plans in case your space is being use for other purposes? If you have limited space, try making the activities utilize other areas. Like maybe the park or backyard. Try being creative when using space. Try to find space that is relevant to your activity. TIME: When planning your activities for your children, have you taken into account the amount of time needed for the preparation, completion and clean up? Have you made sure you have a back up activity?
When activities fail, sometimes it’s due to poor time management. When activities do not flow with some kind of order, gaps appear and those gaps create opportunities for children to loose focus, or if the activity is rushed through too fast and children have not had time to process what they have done. TASK: When planning your activities for your children, have you plotted out all your tasks? Have you called all the people you needed too and made all the contacts you needed to make to make the activities a success? Sometimes the best ideas fall apart because we were not on task. Because something fell through the cracks, the activities failed. Children know when you are NOT prepared and will sometimes use that time to get into other things. Also you loose credibility as someone who can create activities that they will enjoy. When you look back on all of the above areas, you may learn that children react to their surroundings and the people they interact with. If you come into work on task and prepared for the day, you will find that you will have a lot less behavioral issues and more successful sessions with your group of children.