The Three-Step Approach to Addressing Conflict…

Effective teachers and parents create positive learning

environments by helping children learn to regulate

their behavior and emotions. Yet even with well-

established behavioral expectations, young children

often continue to engage in unsafe behavior and

experience conflicts. Many parents and teachers are

left unsure how to help them resolve these situations.

A child's self-regulation is influenced by

developmental processes that occur emotionally,

cognitively, and language-based. Because these skills

are still developing throughout childhood, young

children are especially sensitive. Unlike adults, children

do not have all the skills they need to be successful in

conflict resolution and therefore need to help of the adults around them.

Parents and teachers play an essential role in the development of these skills.

When teachers target self-regulation and language during classroom interactions

and conflicts, children become more capable of using strategies to interact with

peers and solve problems appropriately. When parents engage in co-regulating

strategies with their child during play, they help children build skills needed for

future interactions. By following the steps below, teachers and parents can

effectively support children's self-regulation and language development while

addressing unsafe, destructive, or conflict-related behaviors in the classroom and

at home.