All Behavior Has Meaning is one of the innovative teaching strategies at the heart of teaching with purpose at University City Children’s Center.

Teachers of young children are often trained in strategies designed to constrain children’s challenging behaviors. These strategies are sometimes successful, and sometimes not, but they always risk masking the hurt behind the behavior, or worse, compound a child’s pain by prohibiting its expression. Conversely, working to understand the behavior’s meaning, and partnering closely with children in this work is a healing salve. This is one of the innovative teaching strategies at the heart of teaching with purpose at University City Children’s Center.

All Behavior Has Meaning

Teachers routinely encounter challenging behavior. Those who understand that All Behavior Has Meaning do their best to understand the message behind the behavior. Teachers develop long-term solutions toward positive growth by taking the time to understand rather than punish a child for their “unwanted” behavior. This is one way that teachers build positive child-teacher relationships that are so critical to a child’s development

“All behavior has meaning is a reminder for me to think of behavior as communication,” says Grace Gorski, UCCC early childhood educator, “When a child — or an adult — behaves in a challenging way, they’re telling us that a need is not being met. That reminder helps me to think about problem solving in a different way.”

Learning Empathy

Punishment may temporarily curb a particular behavior, but it also can lead to low self-esteem and stunted emotional development. However, children who are coached through challenging behaviors learn that their actions affect others. This is a step in the development of empathy.

“I think it really encourages children to develop self regulation and executive functioning skills,” says Gorski. “When children have a partner in a teacher who’s able to understand that destructive behaviors mean that a need isn’t being met, they begin to learn why they’re doing what they’re doing. It helps them to be intentional in their own choices beyond, ‘My teacher gets mad at me for throwing that toy.’”

Children are Explorers

Play and behavior are how children learn to understand the world around them. As they explore and exhibit various behaviors, they realize they impact others around them and learn valuable lessons. Gorski says it’s not about stopping unwanted behavior as much as it is meeting the needs of the child so the behavior is no longer desirable to them.

Partnering with parents to understand the context of a child’s behavior is important, too. Communicating with parents gives teachers insight into the reasons behind certain behaviors. Teachers also have the opportunity to teach parents positive ways to address certain behaviors. This leads to growth in the child, teacher, guardians and the larger family unit.

“There have been times when we’ve gotten extra context that has helped us understand a child’s behavior,” says Gorski. “Children aren’t verbally processing a lot of things yet. They process it through play. If we see destructive play and find out they observed something, it puts a different lens on it. It’s not an unwanted behavior because they’re processing something that they saw that they don’t have the verbal skills to talk about.”

Teaching with Purpose

Like their students, teachers can feel frustrated and fatigued in the classroom. Teachers who teach with purpose identify and question their own behavior, just as they learn to understand their students’. As teachers partner closely with students and help them understand and regulate their behavior, they develop methods to address, learn from and gain empathy not only for children, but all people.

“It has been helpful for understanding my colleges,” Gorski states, “How can I talk with my colleague about a situation in a way that invites understanding?”