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Parenting Column: ​Supporting your child to engage in positive play (Citizen & Echo)

16/3/2018

 
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Parenting column by Sasha Hart, family care manager at Community Family Care, Staunton

It is common for children to have disagreements and fall out while playing.

Turn taking and sharing is a skill they need to develop. Problems arise when children do not learn how to problem solve and that can lead to aggressive behaviour frequently occurring whilst playing.

We’ve come up with some simple steps to help.

Explain the rules

Decide on two or three simple rules for playing with others and remind your child before playing – keep hands and feet to yourself or share and take turns.

Rules should act as a reminder for the behaviour you want to encourage, not what you want to avoid.

Encourage positive behaviour

Offer lots of praise when your child is playing well with others. If playing with others is particularly difficult for your child, you may want to reinforce positive play with a reward at the end.

Choose activities to encourage positive play

Some activities promote sharing and turn taking, such as board games and ball games, which can be a great start.

More structured play will help your child to remember the rules as free play can be chaotic, particularly if your child struggles with sharing/playing nicely.

Step in before it escalates

Often aggressive behaviour is triggered by children becoming frustrated over not getting their own way.

Children can struggle to articulate what they want and the idea is to help them problem solve before the behaviour escalates.

For example, give them some words to use: “Tom – say ‘Isaac you’ve had your turn, it’s now my turn’.”

What to do if it escalates

Tell your child what you want them to stop doing and what behaviour you want to see instead.

Act as soon as you see it happening. If they do not do as you have asked, give a logical consequence such as removing the item they are fighting over for a set time or take your child for a time out to calm down.

Praise your child as soon as you see them playing nicely again and this will encourage that to continue.
Click here to download PDF of this article.

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People’s Postcode Trust is a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

Our charity received a £4,000 grant from the Trust to go towards IT equipment and to cover training and recruitment costs for five new sessional Family Support Workers.

www.postcodetrust.org.uk
www.postcodelottery.co.uk
Community Family Care
Unit A Kingsholm Mews
76 Kingsholm Road
Gloucester
GL1 3BD
​

01452 840999
info@communityfamilycare.co.uk
  • Community Family Care is part of Community Foster Care
  • Community Family Care is Investors in People accredited
  • Charity Registration Number: 1084124
  • Company Number: 03719101
Website by lizhawkins.co.uk
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Vision, Mission & Values
    • The Team
    • Our Trustees
    • Testimonials
    • Work For Us
  • Our Services
    • Family Group Conferences >
      • FGC Information for Kids
      • FGC Information for Family & Friends
      • FGC Information for Professionals
    • Working For Families
    • BoA Youth
    • Art Journal Project
    • LifeCoach
    • Story Explorers
    • Family and Child Support for Schools
    • Chill and Chat
  • News And Views
  • Useful Links
  • Contact Us