Originally Posted by cheerfuldom:
No way....do not tell the parents directly. Have a sit down conversation with your director/supervisor and the other teachers that work with this child. Be specific about what you are seeing with his behavior and ask the director what the daycare policies are about discussing with the parents and addressing the behavior. It sounds like the director is more interested in keeping the income than about supporting her teachers (and certainly not interested in terming problem children). You need to do your job and part of that is abiding by the daycare policies. If the director tells you to just deal with it to keep this boy attending than now you know how this daycare works. Either you can work with this environment or you cant.
If you go to the parents directly, it is very likely that your job will be in jeopardy for not going thru the proper channels.
and FYI, not every autistic kid is aggressive, in fact, many are not. There are many reasons why a kid is aggressive around other children. If you are untrained to diagnose and you start spouting out words like autistic, you will be in trouble fast with the parents and the director!
I would also caution you about jumping to label this child. It could be that he doesn't know how to interact with other children (especially his own age). How many children you have on average, and what age range? Also, how is DCB other then his aggressiveness (speech, other developmental milestones)?
We had a child very much like the DCB you are describing. I started working in his classroom when he was 18 months old and he was very aggressive. We made sure one worker was close by him (there were two of us working in that room) and when he began to act aggressively, we would step in and tell him, "nice hands", or "gentle touches"- demonstrating on his arm, or helping him to it to us. We also encouraged him to hug the child he hurt (if the other child would accept it- we never pushed it) or pat their arm/ leg gently to comfort them.
The DCB I work with does have some speech and other delays so he has therapists who come in and work with him, but that is just a recent thing. He is now about 2 1/2 and has come a very long way. It takes a lot of patience and redirecting.
Make sure you document his behavior so that if you feel like you need to talk to the director and/or have a meeting with his parents (with the director present if necessary), you will be able to answer any questions. This will also help if you are noticing any delays. Also, get advice from other co-workers, even if they don't necessarily work in your classroom. Someone might have some ideas or good tips of things that have worked in the past.
Good luck!