Olifia Rombot

At the age of six, most children usually enroll in the elementary level and start to outgrow the baby’s fad; they can talk like an adult, reason more logically and express their feeling with words and actions. This is the important responsibility of teachers of first graders to notice and to know how to handle all of the blooming skills the children are experiencing; some may perform actions and some are more talkative.

Katherine Lee stated in her article “Your 6-Year-Old Child: Behavior and Daily Routines” that many times behavior problems of 6-year-olds risen due to the development of new nature as a “bigger-kid” that they wanted to display their independence by being more demanding and controlling over things that concerned them such as what they wanted to wear or to do. They also, by nature might try to test the restrictions and limitations of the authority. Typically, they sometimes would alter the baby’s deed with big kid aptitude such as paying attention and staying focus to listen for a longer period of time or do intricate duty (About.com Guide 2013).

Children between the ages of two through six are developing a sense of initiative, it means that they are in the stage of loving to explore and doing some experimentations (Nelsen, Erwin and Duffy 2007, 40). And this is what occurred in the first grade class as the researcher recognizes; the students are constantly exploring everything around them and cannot control their fluctuated mood swing and actively experimenting with their behaviors.  As a whole their self regulatory is very low and need continuous reminded to implement positive actions. These are the misbehaviors that the researcher noticed: 1) They impulsively stand up or move without asking for permission. 2) They cannot wait patiently to speak or they blurt out the answers and speak loudly. 3) During the lesson, when the teachers are explaining, some children always play with their fingers or play with their pencils or erasers.

They are also low in the interpersonal skills : 1) They are thinking about themselves instead of their peers’ feelings as they speak to each other. 2) They do not know how to encourage each other. 3) They do not know how to motivate and comfort their crying peers; instead they will report it to the teacher. 4) They do not know how to empathize or communicate their feelings correctly.

The word Discipline came from the Latin word means to teach. As the educators applied disciplinary in the learning process it means they are teaching the students (Ahlin and Allen 2009, 6).  The old-fashioned approach of discipline before the 1960’s, was trying to make students feel intimidated and then scared to behave badly; then punishing them when they did. Usually the teachers in the old days would use cold manner, cutting tone of voice, threat, even corporal punishments and psychological harassment. Then many theories of discipline emerged to improve the old fashion ways to discipline children. Lee Canter and Marlene Canter in their assertive discipline theory. They created a system to discipline a child by setting up rules that the class should comply to; when the rules were broken, some consequences would take place.   Thomas Gordon promoted Self Discipline in children, the objective was to obtain self-control in the students by removing both negative and positive reinforcement and replacing those with class agreements and participative decision making, avoidance of comments that disturb leaning process and identification of the cause of misbehavior and usage of I-messages (Charles 2000, 141-145). The theories of discipline continued to develop for the best solution to help the students behave properly.

Positive discipline is a new way of method about discipline; it is a non-punitive method of discipline (Nelsen et al. 2007, 11). The foundation of this method is the comprehension of the idea of discipline itself; it is about teaching and it is not about punishing; while applying, discipline also teaches. (Nelsen, Erwin and Duffy 2007, 8). There are 8 Methods to put into practice: get a child involved, teach them to be respected, use sense of humor, be in the child’s world, say what you mean and do it firmly, have patience, not just talk, accept the child as a unique individual (14).

Self regulatory is a skill or ability to concentrate and to engage in group activities, restrain disruptive and impulsive behavior, and work autonomously (Duckworth et al. 2009, i-ii).

Interpersonal skills: A skill to interact with other effectively (Ormrod 2006, 83) and to express his feeling in words, and can value others and is skilled in connecting with other people (O’Neil 2000). Interpersonal skill is part of interpersonal intelligence in Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence; he described intelligence as the skill to find solution or solve problem in real life, the ability or skill to create new problem solving and the skill to design something valuable for one culture (Tileston  2008, 46). A person who has interpersonal skills means, that he has the ability to interact with other effectively (Ormrod 2006, 83),

As the PD method is implemented at the subject of the study, the objective is for the students to acquire interpersonal skill as well as self regulatory skills.

REFERENCES

Ackermann, Edith. “The Whole Child Development Guide.” In Part 4 :Early School Years Ages 4-8 Years, by Edith Ackermann, 141-235. The Lego Group, 2004.

Ahlin, Tracy Habis and Rose Allen. Positive Descipline ;A Guide for Parents. St.Paul: University of Minnesota, 2009.

Beebe, Steven A, Susan J.Beebe and Mark V. Redmond. Interpersonal Communication relating to Others 5th Edition. Boston: Pearson Education,Inc., 1008.

Berk, Laura E. Development through the Lifespan 5th Edition. Boston: Pearson Education Inc, 2010.

Chadsey, Terry and Jody McVittie. “The Positive Discipline School.” www.posdis.org. August 2006. (accessed July 5, 2013).

Charles, C.M. The Synergetic Classroom Joyful Teaching and Gentle Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley Longman,Inc, 2000.