In this follow-up to Guidance for Every Child, author Dan Gartrell, EdD, expands on the advice broached in that book - that children need guidance rather than discipline. Guidance is teaching for healthy emotional and social development. On a day-to-day basis as conflicts occur, guidance is teaching children to learn from their mistakes, rather than punishing them for the mistakes they make; helping children learn to solve their problems, rather than punishing children for having problems they cannot solve.
In A Guidance Guide for Early Childhood Leaders, Dan explores secure relationships as the foundation for guidance and how to build them with children, families, and colleagues. He gives examples of how children’s mistaken behavior (not misbehavior) can play out in the classroom and provides strategies on how early childhood professionals can help others to gain the emotional health they need to be socially responsive, and then support the social skills they need to build relationships and solve problems cooperatively.
112 pages
"Every day teachers make important decisions that impact the social-emotional development of our youngest generation, Dan has created a wonderful resource that is packed with useful strategies and inspiring stories that will help teachers strengthen their relationships with children and families while supporting the development of social skills that children will use throughout their lives.”
Dan Gartrell certainly has a unique and endearing way of explaining child guidance in a clear, easy to apply manner. His passion, humor, and dedication to the field of Early Childhood will be evident as the reader moves through this book. Dan’s insight into a child’s behavior and their ‘mistaken behavior’ is brilliant guidance for all who know, work with and raise children.