DELIVERING & RECEIVING FEEDBACK
Case Study 2
A child in your room was bitten by another child today and although it is always a difficult experience for all involved, you feel you and your team handled it well. You went immediately to the bitten child and your colleague grabbed an ice pack. You directed the trainee in the room to sit nearby the child who bit and monitor her until you could get there. The child who bit was hiding under the table and the trainee was sitting nearby in a non-threatening position. Once the child who was bitten was settled, you spent some time talking to the child who bit and explained that 'we don't bite, that hurts'.
Your colleague who grabbed the ice pack, filled out the accident form and informed the parent that for the second time this week, her child had been bitten. The parent asked who the child was and your colleague told her that she was not allowed to disclose this information. The parent asked to speak to the Director who explained the same thing offering reasoning regarding privacy. The parent became angry and yelled at the Director explained that she had heard from a staff member who works in another room that you are not doing anything to punish the child who keeps biting.
Your Director called you in to her office and explained what the parent had alleged and asked you if it was true. Then proceeded to list some things that you could be doing differently. These things were;
'you need to make sure you are watching her at all times or someone is watching her, assign a person to watch her'
'you have to make it clear to her that she is not to bite here at our preschool, straight after she does it - don't wait too long'
'you are to be the person to call this parent each time this happens, you can't keep getting Sally (colleague) to do it just because she has a relationship with her'.
You have to now return to your role faced with this situation and it is making you feel anxious.
Create a plan to have an assigned person to be nearby the child who bites at various high risk intervals during the day. Decide if it needs to be the dame person all day or if there is swap out. Make it clear that everyone is responsible for the child, but there is close proximity teacher for safety.
If you disagree with a quick reactive response to guiding (the child who bit) behaviour, take the suggestion as another perspective to behaviour guidance and be curious about if it will work. See yourself as a scientist doing very important experiment and your hypothesis or prediction differs from your bosses but you need to carry out both. Show your boss that you will plan this response as per her suggestion and ask if you can check this with the family. Then plan to carry out the strategies you believe will work. Give both a long period of time. One week is not enough to gather credible evidence. At least 6 weeks. Create a plan to keep families feeling confident that action is being taken. Describe to the families what the action is where there is seemingly 'no action' and your reasons for it.
Create a collaborative problem solving session with Sally to see what she thinks about being the person to call about the biting. Work together to define the problem and map out the possible solutions. It may not be as easy as simply changing the person who calls. Gather all your information and go back to your boss with possible solutions.