Impulse Control an Issue for Covid-isolated Children

01/18/2022

Impulse Control an Issue for Covid-isolated Children

My mother always used to say: The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana.
Betty White (1922 – 2021) as Rose in The Golden Girls

Nancy Cutler, in the Rockland/Westchester (New York) Journal News, reports that:
“North Rockland school officials took an informal survey to gauge the pandemic-related behavioral delays. When it came to the ability to ‘self-regulate’ – follow directions, navigate the world of school with appropriate behavior and other soft skills – nearly 100% of the 455 kindergartners in the district's three K-3 buildings showed delays compared to kindergartners before the pandemic.” She explains that issues with impulse control applied to children younger than kindergarten, also:
“The youngest students are navigating a new world. They may have skipped child care or preschool, or participated remotely for long stretches, and rarely had playdates or played in a park where they had to negotiate playing with new friends. Some barely even tagged along with a parent to the store amid safety protocols in place during their key developmental years.”

Michelle Salcedo, in an article that forms the basis of an Out of the Box Training, “Classrooms as the Root of Challenging Behaviors,” offers helpful advice for how to make early childhood classrooms better places for children who are experiencing challenges for any reason:

“Young children have not yet formed the ability to articulate, or even understand, the motivations behind their behaviors. When asked, ‘Why did you do that?’ children may reply with a blank stare, an ‘I don’t know,’ or a shrug of the shoulders. In most cases, these are not signs of defiance or apathy, but reflections of the truth. Children often do not know why they behave in certain ways, but their behaviors communicate to us that something is amiss. It is up to the teacher to translate children’s behaviors to understand the reasons behind them. Once the behavior is understood, teachers can adapt the environment to make it more likely that the child will thrive.”

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