What are four strategies to assist a child in being successful in the early childhood classroom?

Troubles with transitions are usually amplified at the start of the year, given that routines have not been established. Moreover, COVID-19 has likely impacted your typical classroom schedule and program closures may have dramatically altered children’s routines, presenting even more challenges than usual. Even in the best of times, transitions can be difficult, but with a little planning and flexibility you can minimize the frustrations that commonly accompany transitions for both yourself and the children in your care.

Why are transitions so hard for some children?

Being able to independently transition from one activity to the next is a key aspect of getting children ready to start kindergarten. However, many young children struggle stopping one activity and moving to another. This can be for a variety of reasons. For children (and adults too!) it can be extremely frustrating having to leave something they are thoroughly engrossed in, especially if they are enjoying what they are doing or feeling that they have nearly completed the activity. Think about your own life. When you are in the middle of a task you may not appreciate being interrupted or pulled away from that task, particularly if it is an unexpected interruption. For other children, transitions can lead to confusion or produce worried feelings. This usually stems from a lack of structure or routine. While some children may be flexible and be able to adapt to interruptions in their routine, others will have difficulty in understanding why they are being asked to do something else, view the situation as unfair, or else feel unsure of what they should do next. Children respond to uncertainty in different ways. When transitions are unexpected or not clearly communicated, this confusion can lead to frustrated outbursts, increased anxiety, and impact how the child goes through the rest of their day.

What you can do to make transitions easier

While transitions can be challenging, there are a number of things that you can do to make moving from one activity to another smoother and minimize disruptions and outbursts. Here are some things to try in your own program:

Set up a schedule.

This is so important. Children tend to handle expected transitions very differently than unexpected ones. Establish a routine and refer to the schedule throughout the day. It can be helpful to start the day with some sort of morning meeting where you will go over what you have planned. Providing reminders about what comes next in the day can be helpful as well, as it would be a lot to ask young children to memorize the schedule. Keep in mind that the child’s development, language spoken at home, and language skills can impact

Stick to the schedule but build in transition times.

Following your schedule will provide children a good idea of what to expect and help them develop routines. However, it is okay to be flexible at times. For example, if all children are actively working on an art project and fully engaged, it would probably be a better idea to give them a couple extra minutes to finish up, instead of trying to pull everyone away from the activity. Additionally, remember that transitions take time, even when everything goes smoothly. Building that time into the schedule will allow you to stay on track and not feel rushed or flustered. Think about how long it will take to clean up or get new materials instead of expecting one activity to start immediately after another.

Provide cues that mark the time to transition.

To minimize confusion and surprises in the schedule try to incorporate both verbal and non-verbal cues that signal that it is time, or nearly time, to move to a new activity. For example, providing ten- and five-minute warnings will help make transitions go smoothly. You can also incorporate an instrument or bell to signal that it is time for the next activity. Follow this up with a verbal reminder as well (“do we remember what the bell means?”). Another effective strategy is to incorporate some sort of transition song, like the clean-up song.

Transition in pairs.

For some children who struggle with transitions they may enjoy moving to a new activity with a partner. This can be done proactively by planning partner activities or reactively by asking a child who does not struggle with transitions to help another child get ready. This should be framed in a way that encourages supporting friends in the classroom and not as a punishment for the child that struggles with transitions.

Balance active and calm activities.

You have likely seen times in your classroom where it seems like all the children are getting antsy or fidgety. Physical activity and active play are so important for multiple reasons, including helping children make transitions. Try to remember this when you develop your schedule. If there are multiple indoor, quiet activities planned try to break these up with ones that allow children to run around, get exercise, and be louder than they would in the classroom. Similarly, if you are asking children to transition to an activity like

Be positive!

Remember that transitions are tough, especially for young children who may not fully understand what you expect of them. Getting frustrated during transitions will only make the situation more challenging for the children in your care. Children will often mirror your own emotions. If you can remain calm and model appropriate behaviors and attitudes during transitions children will pick these up. Also, remember to provide positive reinforcement when you see children transitioning to activities appropriately. Acknowledging desirable behaviors when you see them will only increase their occurrence.

Transitions can be tricky. But with a little preparation and flexibility you can minimize the challenges that often accompany transitions and help prepare the children in your care to be successful in kindergarten and make your life a little easier too.

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Preschool should be a time of play, happiness, and learning for young children. But across the United States, preschool students are expelled at 3.5 times the rate of students in grades K–12. These expulsions disproportionately affect children of color, especially boys. Black children make up 18 percent of preschool enrollment but 48 percent of preschool children suspended more than once.

These early actions can have a long-term impact. Children who are suspended in preschool are 10 times more likely to drop out of high school, experience academic failure, or have a negative school attitude than children who were not suspended or expelled. EDC early childhood experts Bertha Gorham and Dawn Nixon believe that fostering a supportive, child-centered environment is key to preventing expulsions—and to raising children who are ready to succeed in school. Here, they offer four tips for making this happen.

1. Consider the whole child

Most expulsions and suspensions happen when students have physical outbursts, hurt other children, or disregard rules. Children’s behavioral difficulties can be caused by multiple factors, including traumatic experiences, an emerging developmental disability or mental health issue, or even the way in which a child’s day unfolds. Nixon believes that challenging behaviors are less acts of defiance than they are cries for help.

“I think some children who show behavioral issues are really just responding to their environment,” says Nixon. “Imagine the child who had a long ride to school, and then is expected to sit for circle time right at the beginning of the day. That might be really difficult. If the child acts out, it’s probably because he or she needs to move. The child’s not trying to be disruptive.”

In fact, a breakdown in any number of daily routines could trigger stress and pave the way for a rocky time in class. Nixon says that rather than sending the child home for the day, teachers, caregivers, mental health consultants, and parents should all work together to identify possible causes of the behavior.

“Children do well if they can,” says Nixon. “If something is going sideways, then the adults in that child’s life need to identify what’s going wrong and brainstorm strategies to support the child.”

2. Prioritize social and emotional learning

Gorham says that social and emotional skills—which include learning how to resolve conflicts, bond with teachers, make friends, and be part of a group—help protect against negative behaviors. The importance of these skills was made clear to her during a 1998 child wellness study she conducted in North Carolina.

“The people I interviewed—teachers, parents, doctors, and pastors—were most concerned about children’s attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity, inability to follow directions, and insufficient services available to children in the mental health system,” she says. “Kindergarten teachers believed that if parents and preschools could just teach children basic social skills, then academic development would be no problem.”

However, Gorham worries that the greater emphasis placed on academic achievement at the expense of behavioral and socialization skills could have a negative, long-term impact on the ability of some children to cope in the classroom.

“You have to teach children how to make friends and resolve conflicts,” she says. “Learning and care environments that support children’s healthy social and emotional development pave the way for academic success.”

3. Confront bias

Nixon says that building an inclusive environment begins with confronting implicit biases about behavior, race, and gender. She points to recent research from Yale that indicates teachers have implicit biases about who is going to behave in a classroom and who is not.

“Teachers disproportionately look for where they think the problem is going to be, and that often means children of color and boys,” she says. “Some students are unfairly singled out.”

Addressing those biases can have a real impact on the lens through which a teacher views a child’s behavior and, by extension, the suspension and expulsion rates. Nixon recommends that programs should track suspensions and expulsions and then use that data to examine programmatic practices to address any disparities found.

“You have to talk about it,” she says. “Normalizing conversations around implicit bias can lead to increased awareness. Only then can we mitigate its impact.”

4. Invest in mental health consultation

While suspending or expelling a child for challenging behavior may seem a logical solution to an immediate problem, it does nothing to resolve the core issues that are driving that behavior.

Infant and early childhood mental health consultants can play a critical role in supporting both adults and children. They can often identify the issues underlying children’s challenging behaviors and then help teachers and families find constructive ways to resolve them. In fact, a study of Connecticut’s Early Childhood Consultation Partnership found that using mental health consultation led to a decrease in teachers’ ratings of children’s external and problem behaviors.

“Mental health consultants can offer a behavioral health lens that might otherwise be missing from the classroom,” says Gorham. “It’s about helping teachers and caregivers get more resources and strategies, so that they can help change the environment for a child who might be struggling.”

When mental health consultants, caregivers, and parents work together, a struggling child can get back on track.

“Young children are eager to play, learn, and make friends; like adults, they want to be happy and successful in what they attempt to do,” says Gorham. “It’s our job to make that happen for them.”