RUNNING HEAD: Book Reflection# 3 1

Pacific Oaks College

HD 426-Summer 2016

Book Reflection #3

Rebecca De Leon
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Challenging Behaviors in Young Children

This book gives a lot of examples and tools that educators can use while working with

children in general and with children with challenges as well. I happen to find a lot of the topics

in this book very interesting and important when working in the field. It gives information on

how to build a strong relationship with children and how important it is for you to get to know

the child individually. This book also has information about behavior and the brain which I

happen to find as a very good information about the brain and how it works. In chapter 4 the

author even provides us readers with a diagram and the different parts of the brain and how they

play a role in behavior and how both the brain and behavior show that nurturing and stable

relationships with adults are essential for young children. An important message that this book

explains is the importance of understanding yourself, the child, your relationship with the child

and your relationship with the childs family.

One useful information from this book was the part in the book on Chapter 5, where it

explains the importance of understanding yourself How you relate to the child depends on what

you see when you look at him and what you see depends on who you are. That is why it is

important for you to discover who you are to know what matters to you, to understand your

reasons for doing this work, to figure out your philosophy of child care and education to know

what kind of people you want the child in your care to become (pg.66). This quote its self-

explanatory it gives specific reason why it is important to do a self-reflection on yourself first. I

think by doing so it will let you (educators) set any bias that you might have aside while working

and will allow you to see the children much more accurately, just like the book explains. Another

useful information I received from this book was in chapter 6 Opening the culture door. It is

obvious that when working with children you must work with their parents as well and how you
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work with children is different than how you work with adults. As an educator working with

populations like such we need to be aware of what its important to each individual and learn

how to work with these families individually. Just like this book says on pg. 91, Our culture is

a framework of our life. Our culture is an integral part of our identity, whether we know it or

not, we learn from our families (who learned it from their families) effortlessly and

unconsciously, and it is reasonably well established by the time we turn 5 years old (pg.91).

This quote really made me reflect on myself and as I was doing so it became very accurate in my

mind. Our culture really is an integral part of our identity whether we know it or not and when

we work with other people we need to be aware of that, of how we act around everyone else

doing our profession , how we think, and how we speak (including our shows of emotions) I

think that reminding ourselves that most of the children and families we work with in one future

they will look up to us who made a difference in their lives, therefore.

Lastly, another useful information I found in this book was on chapter 7 A community is

like a family: People have a sense of belonging; they nurture, respect, and support one another;

and they work together toward common goals. Children connected to a community enjoy school

and learning more and have better attendance, grades, standardized test scores, and graduation

rates. (pg. 123). As I read this part in the book I came to realize that it is easy to ignore and

overlook signs and need of attention that some children may be lacking in their lives. This quote

explains how important it is for children to be part of a community because a caring community

meets children's basic psychological needs which is very important in early childhood.

Including children with challenging behavior is another topic that this book talks about. If

children are going to learn to function in society they must be in society interacting with others.

We live in a diverse world and it is not okay to ignore and isolate the child with behavior and I
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think that as educators it is our responsibility to create a safe and nurturing environment for the

child who does not yet feel comfortable enough to explore his or her surroundings. It is also not

fair for educators to feel unsupportive therefore advocating for themselves and supporting one

another at a workplace is beneficial to not feel alone in the field. Suggesting that children and

teachers spend the first few days getting to know one another and helping everyone feel welcome

and safe by playing games, and involving them in activities can reduce anxiety, and bring

everyone together says a psychologist mentioned in the book by name Robert B. Brooks, and I

could not agree more with his thought in this field.

I personally dont think I found items in this book that I would challenge or critique. If

anything, all of the material I read and the tools I gathered reading this book will definitely help

me when Im out in the field working with children and families and it is one of the reasons why

I would recommend this book not only to educators but to parents as well. I think that a lot of

parents are not aware of this obstacles and challenges the children encounter in their lives but

by reading themselves books that give information to help them understand is one step closer to

obtaining good outcomes to situations.

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References

Kraiser, Barbara and Sklar Rasminsky. Challenging Behavior in Young Children.

2012, 2007, 2003, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458.