Make an effort to find out about potential problems before a child enters your class by checking through previous reports, discussing him with previous teachers and finding out which strategies worked best in different situations. Find out whether he has difficulty coping with change or waiting his turn, if he tends to call out in class or needs to be cued in frequently in order to concentrate. Once the potential difficulties have been ascertained, think about how these difficulties will impact on the normal school day and on different situations that might arise. By doing this, you can plan ahead to avoid the possibility of a poor start. If you are fully informed, you will be able to prevent him letting himself down. Always try to play to the child’s strengths, whatever they may be, and try to see more positives than negatives.
Discussing with informed colleagues the difficulties you are having in coping with a particular child can be a constructive step towards improving the relationship with that child. It is also a good idea to provide evidence of, and record, behavioural difficulties so that you have a clear record and can perhaps avoid future incidents.
Try to work towards upholding classroom or group rules to cultivate understanding and support and to avoid being asked why the difficult child is being allowed to do something when the other children are not. If you can do this, the other children are more likely to accept the difficult child (rather than reject or react to him) and you are more likely to learn to extinguish unwanted behaviour by ignoring it and paying attention to others who are behaving well.
Don’t exclude the child from an event, but provide an alternative, with other children joining in, to avoid ostracism. For example, if a child has poor coordination and cannot take part in sports days, giving him a responsible job such as a door or drink monitor, or collating the results is a good idea. Try to make it a position where other children need to interact with him, so he can be made to feel special.
