Guidance and Discipline in Child Care

Little girl with soccer ball

Guiding children’s behavior is one of the biggest challenges many child care providers face. Choosing and using the most appropriate guidance and discipline practices focus on ways to encourage and strengthen positive behavior, ways to prevent misbehavior, and ways to manage misbehavior when it occurs.

The following articles provide basic information to help child care providers guide the behavior of young children in the child care setting.

Preventing Misbehavior

The first step in guiding young children’s behavior is to anticipate …

What is the difference between discipline and punishment?

Discipline is a positive method of teaching a child self-control, confidence, and responsibility. The key to positive discipline is teaching a child what behavior is okay and what behavior is not okay. The focus is on what children are expected and allowed to do. It includes catching kids being good and encouraging appropriate behavior. It also includes modeling appropriate behavior. Punishment is quite different from discipline. Punishment may be physical as in spanking, hitting, or causing pain. It may be …