3.4 Techniques for Challenging Behaviour

Children that are disruptive and not listening

Sticky toe circle

This is a technique that brings your whole group together in a fun and manageable way. Ask all the children to stand in a circle and say there is glue at the end of their toes and that they have to stick them to the toes of the person next to them. You can then expand on this by inviting them to have sticky knees and sticky hands etc. This is a suitable activity for an inattentive group, but there are other, more effective ways of dealing with an individual child who is disruptive or inattentive.

A child that is scared of spiders

Arachnophobia is a very real fear for some people, and for others it can be a learned behaviour, especially with children imitating adults they have seen with this fear. The best way to deal with this is to be patient and show the child that you have a comfortable relationship with spiders, sharing what you find cool about them. Show the child how you enjoy them crawling on your arm (that is if you do!). Then move on to the next activity. Don’t push the child into anything they don’t want to do (e.g. hold a spider). If you are naturally curious and comfortable with spiders, they might eventually feel comfortable to start imitating your relationship with them.

A child that wanders off

After explaining to the child why they need to stay close by, reminding them of your agreements at the beginning of the session, make them your assistant and give them your rucksack to wear (as long as it isn’t too heavy!). This will stop them from wandering off. Make sure you have your emergency kit with you before you give them your rucksack!

A group that is hyper active and not focused

A glue game such as Musical Mimicry, mentioned above, usually works for this. Using Cornell’s flow learning activities that aim to focus the group, or any initial activity that allows the group to expel surplus energy will also work.

A child that stamps on beetles and slugs killing them

This is a difficult one to deal with, however setting clear boundaries from the outset – saying that no-one is allowed to harm anything in the woods, will help you if this agreement is broken. You can then calmly discuss why this particular minibeast is important and valuable, not just to us, but to other creatures too, as well as having value in it’s own right!  Then, if necessary the child might need to sit on a log outside of the group activity for a while to think about their actions. Let the child return to the group after a short period of time, letting them know, if they kill something again that they will either be removed from the woods or, if this isn’t practical, will have to sit on the log until the end of the session.