Quality Rating 4: Positive Guidance
Positive Behavioral Practices Policy
Children develop socially and emotionally through caring interactions and the positive guidance you offer every day. Your program’s positive behavioral practices are documentation of the support and guidance you give to children. Focusing on positive behaviors, providing visual cues, and helping children understand what they should do are important steps in promoting positive social skills and self-discipline.
A written policy that describes these practices is one way to communicate to others how you promote positive behavior, take steps to avoid negative behaviors, and help children gain important social-emotional skills for meeting life’s challenges.
This section guides you through reviewing, revising, or creating a policy that meets the requirements for Developmentally Appropriate Learning and Practice: Positive Guidance: DAP 3.4. To meet the requirements, your policy should describe the use of four specific positive guidance strategies:
- providing choices
- redirection
- reflection and problem solving
- clear rules and expectations developed with input from the children
Select the Requirements tab to learn about the DAP 3.4 requirements for your program type.