Strategies Guiding Young Children

1. Know the child. Examining, listening, and learning about a child’s nature, interests, and learning styles often demystifies performance and helps adults guide the child. Adults working with young kids are very busy, but will nevertheless find it priceless to take the time to learn and remember the individuality of each child.  This enables adults to greatly improve the guidance they provide by respecting, responding, and building a relationship with each kid.   
2. be honest. Sometimes adults “tweak the truth” to speed up issues. For instance, an adult may tell a child that a toy is broken just to keep the child away from playing with the toy. Another example, that is often alluring for well-meaning parents, is niggling out the door because it seems easier than letting the child see that you are leaving.  These “quick fixes” will most likely make guidance and trust harder in the long run.   
3. Making Verbal and Nonverbal Messages Agree. Have you ever had someone use a sweet voice to tell you “no way?” Wasn’t it irritating and annoying to be given this type of dissimilar message! How can adults make sure that their nonverbal messages are similar with the verbal guidance they are seeking to give children? It is essential to be conscious that your tone and body language fit your words. 
4. Show Respect. Showing the child respect will help her know she is being guided not punished. The following three strategies will help: 1) Move to the child, instead of calling over to her; 2) bend or kneel to her level; and 3) Look gently into her eyes.
5. Redirect. When a matter arises, it is occasionally helpful to avoid a struggle with the child by directing his interest elsewhere. This strategy is very successful with kids. For instance, sharing is a conceptually, difficult thought for young children to understand. So, when Sam pulls the toy dog away from Joe, it is helpful to remind her, “Joe has the dog, here’s one for you.” If there is not another puffy animal around, the teacher or parent may take Sam’s hand and say, “Joe has the dog right now; let’s find something particular just for you.” 
6. Use Humor. Most children react to adults’ joy. How can you tap into this joy to help guide children? It is not suitable to laugh at a child; however, it is proper to laugh at a situation with a child. For instance, if a child starts using peanut butter as a hand moisturizer, the adult may smile at the association the child is making. In this case, it is significant to remind the child that if she wants to rub something on her hands, she should use cream, not peanut butter.  
7. Allow Natural Consequences. A natural result is when an action happens and the natural outcome is what guides the child. For instance, if a child breaks all her crayons she will have to make do with broken crayons. It is essential to make sure the outcome is safe and does not crash the child’s needs. For example, if a child is learning to use a toilet and soils her pants, it would be punitive to make her stay in dirty garments.  
8. Work with the Children. Older preschoolers and school-age children can be energetic participants in rule setting: 1) Children may talk about the reasons for the rules; 2) Children may clarify the behaviors covered and 3) Older kids may help with the decision making for the rules. The benefits of brainstorming with children are numerous: It builds community, encourages ownership, increases responsibility, helps them know the reasons behind the rules, and encourages them to solve problems.
9. Be an Active Listener. Active listening supports the congruency of verbal and nonverbal messages and builds two-way communication. Two-way communication occurs when there are communications between children and adults.  According to Montessori course active listening is precisely what it implies – listening actively – and involves really tuning into what the other person is saying in a nonjudgmental manner and giving supportive feedback to support the person to keep communicating. If kids can convey what they are feeling, adults have clues to guide their behavior.   
10. Evaluate Your Environment. Look at your room set-up. Are spaces clearly defined? Is there too much open space, which may provoke running? Or, is there not enough space for children to move around without banging into each other? There are five factors according to nursery teacher training for creating a physical atmosphere that promotes guidance: 1) Arrange areas for kids to access and use with ease; 2) Provide enough materials for the children; 3) Give kids enough amount of time with materials and actions; 4) Set up ways for kids to self-regulate and 5) give a model for the children. 
16. Give Choices. Giving choices will help solve differences. This only works, however, when you keep in mind that too many choices are puzzling. The younger the child, the fewer the options he can handle. Instead of asking a three-year-old, “What do you want for breakfast?” you may ask, “Do you want eggs or cereal?” In addition, it is essential to make sure the choices you provide are ones you can live with. For instance, if you ask, “What do you want for breakfast?” and the child says, “A blueberry muffin”, you have not actually provided the child with a practical choice. Making choices is one of the best ways for a child to build up a sense of self-sufficiency. Furthermore, toddlers are told there are so many things they may not do that having opportunities to make a choice gives these young children a chance to be self-regulating and helps their need to have a sense of control.