Environments and Challenging Behavior

The late Jim Greenman, in his beloved book, Caring Spaces, Learning Places (recently revised by Mike Lindstrom), wrote about how the environments of children’s programs can help alleviate children’s challenging behavior:

“The behavior of young children illustrates the complexity of the environment. It takes them a while to understand…the relationship between space, time and roles…The speed with which children develop has implications for the environment. Children can suddenly become interested in something that was never before compelling, such as light switches, climbers, friends.

Children’s environments…are trade-offs between adults’ needs and children’s needs, safety and risk, challenge and convenience, and most importantly, trade-offs between individual needs and those of the group. As early childhood professionals…it is our job to make evident the trade-offs and come up with what seem to be the most workable alternatives.”

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