Session 4:

Understanding How Children

Think and Feel
 RATE YOUR STRESS LEVEL

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

 Stress management
exercise – Shake, Count,
Clap
Review

• Warmth provides a safe and secure environment for learning,

which encourages motivation and cooperation of learners.
• Structure provides information and guidance to scaffold
children’s learning. It is not punishment, control, or coercion.
• Warmth and Structure together are the two most powerful tools
of Positive Discipline.
 Knowing the materials
Understanding child
development

Providing Providing
The right tools
Warmth Structure

Setting long-term
A clear plan
goals
 Your Learner! 18

• Name (not the real name)

• Male or female
• Age
• Family circumstances
• Interests or favorites
• Typical developmental
• characteristics of the child at this age
• Common challenging behaviors of the child
at this age
 Summing up

• An effective way of reaching our long-term goals is knowing our learners.

• Children’s capacity and abilities change as they grow; their needs and
challenges also change.
• Some of the challenging behaviors we encounter in class are linked to their
developmental characteristics
• Having appropriate expectations about what the child can and cannot do,
and what the child can do with some help facilitates responding with
Warmth and Structure
• Conflicts with learners may be prevented or reduced.
Each child arrives in the classroom
with a unique set of experiences
that affects his/her…

• Readiness to learn
• Motivation to achieve
• Confidence in own abilities
• Comfort in the presence of adults
• Social skills
Understanding Child
Development

Children’s behavior is greatly

influenced by what is going on
in their brain
 Understanding Child Development – Early Grades
• Brain development is going on at a very fast rate

• Brain cells or neurons make many connections and

networks

• Intense drive to explore and learn

• Can be highly distractible, easily bored, and

needing sensory stimulation.

• Still learning about emotions

Covid-19 and the Early Grader

• Limited understanding of what is going on around them

• Need new skills and routines to learn to prevent disease

• Frustration, which can lead to emotional outbursts

• Punishment in the home can happen. This can affect the child’s
academic performance and motivation for learning
 How can the Teacher
Provide Warmth for the
Early Grader?
3
Understanding Child Development – The Middle Grades

• Brain development provides for

greater capacity for learning and
mastery of fundamental skills
• Stage of Puberty, which may come
early for some and late for others
• Getting more confident
Understanding Child Development – The Middle Grades

• Conflicts with learners may arise

✓they ask very critical questions or disagree with the teacher.
✓bullying
✓changes in the child’s moods, which may be interpreted as being disrespectful or
mean.

• Punishment for these typical behaviors may undermine the child’s

confidence and decrease their motivation to learn
Understanding Child Development – The Middle
Grades

✓Acknowledging the child’s point of view

✓Engaging the child in conversation

This builds the child’s self-confidence and promotes greater

interest in learning.
Understanding Child Development – The Middle
Grades
Bullying is common at this stage.

Teacher:
• Scaffold children’s learning towards
Reduces bullying and
appreciating diversity, kindness,
increases the
challenging gender stereotypes.
confidence of learners
• Models empathy and providing guidelines
for acceptable behavior
Covid-19 and the Middle Grader

• Greater understanding of COVID-19 and the consequent school

closure
• Lost their extensive social network
• May experience sadness, fear, and pessimism
• Punishment in the home can happen
How can the Teacher
Provide Warmth for
the Middle Grader?
4
Understanding Child Development – Later Grades

• The brain undergoes the process of pruning

• Adolescent brain continue to develop beyond the age of 18
• This means that their capacity for planning, anticipating the
consequences of their actions, and inhibiting risky behavior are
not yet mature
Understanding Child Development – Later Grades

• Struggle towards gaining more

independence
• They are developing their own identity
• They need security and guidance in solving
problems and making decisions
• Conflicts with adults are common.
Understanding Child Development – Later Grades

• Understanding the struggle that adolescents face

• Recognizing the adolescent’s need for greater independence
• Providing information and helping them go through the problem-
solving process
• Punishment at this stage undermines the trust and good
relationship
Covid-19 and the Late Grader

• Loss of social connection with their peer group or romantic

relationship can be a source of resentment and resistance to or
violation of restrictions
• Strong belief that nothing bad can happen to them or that they
won’t get sick
• Disagreement with parents and conflict over misinformation
circulating over the internet
• Punishment and upheaval in the home can reduce motivation to
continue education
How can the Teacher
Provide Warmth for
the Late Grader?
5
 Scenario Analysis 19

• It has been 1 month since the beginning of the school

year but your female kindergarten learner can only
finish 20% of the work sheets she is required to finish at
the end of each week because she can only sit at her
desk at home for a few minutes at a time.
• If you were to assume the point of view of the pupil,
what would be the developmental reasons for not
being able to sit at the desk for a long time?
• Now, assume the point-of-view as the teacher.
Knowing the child’s point of view what will you say to
her to provide Warmth?
 Scenario Analysis
• You notice your grade 3 male learner has drawn
doodles on his submitted worksheet instead of
completing the assigned work.
• If you were to assume the point of view of the
learner, what would be the developmental
reasons for doodling on his work sheet instead of
completing the assigned work?
• Now, assume the point-of-view of the teacher.
Knowing the child’s point of view, what will you
say to him to provide Warmth?
 Scenario Analysis

• You are on a home visit when notice your grade 7

female learner call her neighbor, a fellow learner
passing by, a derogatory name because of her well-
developed breasts and short skirt.
• If you were to assume the point of view of the
learner, what would be the developmental reasons
for calling someone a derogatory name?
• Now, assume the point-of-view of the teacher.
Knowing the child’s point of view, what will you say
to provide Warmth?
 Scenario Analysis

• You overheard your grade 11 male student planning

to skip his Math online class to join his friends to
play online computer games instead.
• If you were to assume the point of view of the
pupil, what would be the typical reason for skipping
class and playing computer games instead?
• Now, assume the point-of-view of the teacher.
Knowing the child’s point of view, what will you say
or do to provide Warmth?
Summing Up

• Teachers have the opportunity to establish good relationships and

habits that can lead to the long-term goals for their learners.
• Typical developmental characteristics of children are often the
sources of conflict and are misinterpreted as bad behavior.
• Providing Warmth (such as empathy or considering the child’s
point of view) allow teachers to understand the child’s situation
and helps her provide the appropriate Structure to respond to the
child’s needs at the moment.
 To be effective teachers, we need to…

• Know our learners’ abilities at different ages

• Understand that some learners might not
have the experiences or information they
need to succeed
• Reflect on what we could do differently to
help them learn
• Recognize that our learners’ perspectives
might be different from ours
• Understand our own contributions to conflict
with learners
 When we understand how children think and feel at
different ages, we recognize…

Children’s right to
• Protection from all forms of physical and
mental violence (Article 19)
• An opinion and for this to be considered
seriously (Article 12)
• Education that respects their dignity (Article
28)
• Play (Article 31)
 “Hindi talaga natin maiwasan may mga batang malilikot, maiingay.
Tinatawag ko po sila isa-isa. Kinakausap ko ng heart to heart kung ano
talaga ‘yung gusto niya, bakit siya maingay. I-consider mo ba ‘yung family
background nya… ‘Ano ba’ng problema? Bakit ka malikot sa klase? Bakit
ka maingay?’ Effective talagang kausapin ko siyang mag-isa kesa
pagalitan sa buong klase. Then the next day, magtaka ka na lang na iba
na ‘yung kilos nya.”

- Grade 5 Teacher at Jose C. Catolico Elementary School, Gen. Santos City

20
Recognizing individual
differences
Knowing the materials
Understanding child
development

Providing Providing
The tools
Warmth Structure

Setting long-term
The plan
goals
Imagine…
You are a very active person. You love being outdoors, playing
sports, and especially running. When you aren’t doing something
active, you quickly get restless.

You meet someone you really like and you start to become
friends. You want to share your favorite activities with her and
you’re excited about all the things you could do together.
Soon you discover that her favorite activity is reading. She wants to
spend the weekends with you, reading side-by-side.

But when you try to read with her, you can only sit still for a few
minutes. You invite her to go for a walk and she says, “Maybe later.”

So you sit and read for 15 minutes and then invite her again for a walk.
She becomes irritated and says, “Why can’t you sit still? If you can’t sit
here with me, then I’m going to go and read by myself.”
 Flipchart 21

Feelings Relationship

Behaviors Needs
Imagine…
You meet another new friend who also loves to read. She invites you to
her home to show you the books she has collected. She suggests one for
you, about the best places to run in your community. You think this book
sounds really interesting and you want to sit down and start reading it
right away.

After reading a chapter, you feel restless and invite your friend to go for a
walk. She says, “I know that you love to be outside and moving. Let’s go
for a walk and then we can come back and read some more. Maybe after
each of us reads another chapter, we could go and check out one of the
running paths you’ve read about.”
 Flipchart 22

Feelings
Behaviors
Relationship
 Summing Up

• Conflict between teachers and learners may arise from individual

differences
• Teachers are different from their learners and sometimes teachers are
not conscious of their expectations that lead to conflict
• It is important to be aware of these differences and reframe our way of
interpreting the actions of our learners
• Teachers can have the appropriate expectations based on our learner’s
individual differences
• Teachers can respond with Warmth and Structure to enable these
children to move forward with their learning
 Recognizing Individual Differences - Temperament

• Temperament is the genetic basis of

our personality; it reflects how each
person reacts to his/her environment
• It is neither good nor bad
• It remains fairly stable throughout the
person’s lifetime.
Recognizing Individual Differences - Temperament

Some children

Low In between High

• Activity Level
• Distractibility
• Intensity
 Recognizing Individual Differences - Temperament

• Children who have very high activity levels are often perceived as
difficult children
• Children who are easily distracted are often perceived as difficult
children
• Children who show intense emotions are sometimes perceived as
difficult
 Temperament that are often perceived as
challenging can be perceived as a strength.

• Each temperament, whether high or low, has its own

advantages and challenges.
• Being aware of the differences in the temperament of
our learners will help us understand them better and
scaffold their learning better.
 23
Who is the best for the job?

Disaster Response Rescue Team

Basketball or Football Referee
Member
(A person with High Activity Level? or
(A person with High Distractibility Level
Low Activity Level?)
or Low Distractibility Level?)

Grocery Cashier Accountant

(A person with High Activity Level? or (A person with High Distractibility Level
Low Activity Level?) or Low Distractibility Level)
 Recognizing Individual Differences – Temperament

• Teachers have their own temperaments

• Their temperament can be different or the same as their learner
• This can cause conflict because often, we expect others to behave
the same way we do
• For example, a teacher with a low activity level may think that a
student with high activity level is difficult to handle and use
punishment to force this child to sit still.
• Differences in temperament can
be a source of conflict
• When the teacher is aware of the
difference between her own and
the learner’s temperament, she
will have appropriate
expectations of the child’s
behaviour
 Key messages

• Teacher and learner conflicts are often the

result of similarities or differences in
temperaments and needs
• Warmth and Structure are more likely to
reduce these conflicts than anger and
punishment
• The aim is to channel our temperaments in
constructive directions, rather than to try to
change each other’s fundamental
characteristics
 Other Individual Differences

• Differences in home environments

• Cultural differences
• Differences in talents and interests
• Life experiences
• Information processing differences
• Learning challenges
• Life experiences (disaster, violence,
discrimination)
Differences in Home Environments

• Negative
• Positive
• Violence between parents or toward
• Supportive
child
• Encouraging • Criticism, name-calling, degradation
Differences in Interests and Abilities

• Physical disability
• Science and Technology
• Neurodevelopmental
• Arts and Crafts
disability
• Business
• Psychological disability
Differences in how children process information

Sensory input:
• Attending Behavioral Output:
• Sensing • Recalling
• Seeing Processing: • Speaking
• Hearing • Recognizing • Writing
• Smelling • Decoding • Drawing
• Feeling • Connecting • Acting
• Tasting • Understanding • Creating
• Body • Building
awareness • Showing
Summing Up

• Children’s unique information processing capacity affect their

learning and behavior
• Teacher’s responses can compound their challenges or encourage
them to develop strategies to manage their challenges.
• Punishment will not affect how student’s brains work
• They need understanding and support
 When teachers recognize learner’s individual
differences…

• They are fulfilling the child’s right to

a quality education without
discrimination based on their
individual differences (Article 2)

• The child’s right to develop her/his

personality, talents and abilities
(Article 29)
What can Teachers Do?

• Establish an atmosphere that encourages learners to ask for

clarification and assistance.
• Respect each child as an individual.
• Focus on each learner’s strengths.
• Maintain communication with parents and guardians.
• Take an information processing perspective.
• Involve children in their learning and problem-solving.
• Do all that you can to build a strong foundation for your students’
future lives.
Session Summary

• Aside from developmental factors, individual differences may account

for children’s behavior
• Sometimes teachers are not conscious of their expectations from
their learners that lead to conflict
• Lack of understanding of individual differences can lead to
expectations that the learner may find difficult to meet
• Understanding individual differences enables the teacher to factor in
such differences and set appropriate expectations that the learner
can meet
Support for Parents

• Talk to them about the positive

characteristics that make their child unique
from their other children.

• Parents can build on these characteristics to

motivate and encourage their children to
persevere with their lessons.
 Support for Parents

• Talk about the some of the learner’s

challenges; are there possible difficulties in
information processing?

• This is a chance for the teacher to help the

parent see the child as a unique person with
strengths and challenges.
Home Work:

Please read the following pages of your PDET Book for more
information:
• Pages 90-138 – Child Development
• Pages 147-168 – Temperament
• Pages 169-183 – Information Processing
Session Evaluation
https://tinyurl.com/PDETeval4
“I did then what
I knew how to do. Now
what I know better, I do
better.”
- Maya Angelou
 Good Luck!
For support, you can contact:
Wilma Bañaga: Wilma.Banaga@savethechildren.org
Jerly Villanada: Jerly.Villanada@savethechildren.org
PDET Facilitators

facebook.com/groups/IPracticePositiveDiscipline