Each week the Sheldon staff reviews one of our Head Start Policies & Procedures and felt it was important that families stay up to date on these as well. This quarter our focus is on Mental Health, Child Development & Education, Disability. If you ever have any questions regarding our policies and procedures, please reach out!
Safe Place
POLICY:
A safe place will be used as a Behavior Management tool. A safe place is a physical location in your classroom (for some children a safe place might be a designated place outside of the classroom such as an office) used to teach self-regulation and give children a place where they can transform upset into learning. The Safe Place is not a place of punishment, but rather a tool for becoming calm and learning self-regulation skills. This policy relates to Head Start Performance Standards 1302.17(a)(1-4) 1302.90(c)(ii)(B)
PROCEDURE:
Your Safe Place should include tools and materials to assist a child in calming down with comforting blankets, stress-relief tools, paper to draw on, and images reminding children of active calming techniques. Try to include something calming for each of the five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and hear.
Direct and encourage the child to the safe place when they are not making safe choices for themselves or their friends.
In the event that the child’s behavior becomes out of control, with refusal to comply with the Safe Place, staff will use gentle but firm physical guidance/direction, holding the child only long enough to get them to a safe place to calm down.
The safe place will be used to help lead the child through the five steps of self-regulation: I Am, I Calm, I Feel, I Choose, I Solve. Children at this age will likely need an adult to co-regulate with them.
- I Am: Identifies the feeling. (“I am Angry!”)
- I Calm: Requires active calming, featuring the four main breathing techniques, access to a Friends and Family book, and other calming activities.
- I Feel: Includes identifying the feeling with the Feeling Buddies or a Feeling chart.
- I Choose: I Choose step requires the child to consciously choose additional calming activities utilizing the Brain Smart Choice Cubes, I Choose Self-Control Board and/or class-made choice boards.
- I solve: involves the child solving the original problem before returning to work or play, often through the use of the Time Machine.
If the child continues to display out of control behavior, call the Mental Health Coordinator.
- After discussion of interventions applied, and the safety of the child, peers, or staff is at risk, child may be sent home for the remainder of that day to help the child gain control
- Record this behavior
- State facts of behavior, date and initial information
- No videos and/or pictures are to be taken of a child behaviors
- Upon returning to center the next day, child should not be subjected to consequences for the previous day’s behavior
Keep in mind that:
- Children do not need to sit perfectly still or quiet in the Safe Place.
- The Safe Place should not have a time limit, as children regulate at their own pace.
- After the self-regulation is achieved, praise the child for being in control of his behavior, review the rule that was not followed, and remind the child of appropriate alternative solutions to the problem
Remember the Safe Place is only effective if taught and used as a consistent intervention.
