I am an assistant teacher in a two-year-old class (either newly two or nearly two). We have one girl in particular, M, who is a challenge. M (who will be 2 at the end of this month) is a biter. Occasionally, she bites completely unprovoked, but she ALSO bites when she's angry/frustrated.

She has bitten or attempted to bite me SEVERAL times (and when that doesn't work, she resorts to hitting). Usually, it's because she doesn't want to follow instructions (like when I stopped her from taking a toy out of someone's hand).

Often, her response to not getting her own way is to look me dead in the eye and bite her own hand. (Occasionally, she tries to get sympathy by showing me the bite mark later, but it doesn't work.My co-teacher and I are generally on the same page about M biting herself; she's doing it to herself and we aren't going to give into her demands.

The issue we're having is that several of the children are copying the behavior now. If they don't get their way, they are starting to bite themselves. Needless to say, if parents realize that their children are copying behaviors they're picking up from someone else in the classroom, they are NOT going to be happy.

The director is generally unhelpful when it comes to the biting situation- just repeating not to bite. We are doing our best to keep M from biting the other children (but at times I've been alone with up to 14 kids, so it's not always possible), but that doesn't seem to help with the issue of M biting herself and the other kids copying it.

I'm just at a loss as to what to do about this situation. I went to the library today and got some books about not biting (along with some other books that I think the kids will enjoy) and I've been known to play "Don't Bite your Friends" from Yo Gabba Gabba, but this is one of the worst biters I have ever seen in a classroom. (I've dealt with several bad biters, but none that bit or attempted to bite as often as M does).

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