Encouraging Pro-Social Behavior

In her article Teasing, Bullying and Being Left Out (which forms the foundation of an Out of the Box Training Kit), Meg Thomas writes about how to support children’s pro-social behavior:

“Children need confidence in order to stand up for themselves and others. We can build confidence in children, in part, by noticing and calling attention to their prosocial behaviors. Often our attention goes to the children who are acting out or breaking the rules. To counter this tendency, you can post newsprint on the classroom wall and write down examples of helping words or helping hands you observe. Or you might consider bringing a puppet or persona doll into group time every day to describe the helpful behaviors it has seen. Listing behaviors, rather than the names of the individual children who have done them, will build an eagerness to help in the class as a whole.”

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