Biting Policy and Procedures

Many children go through stages in their development that others find unacceptable. Biting in particular is a very unpleasant form of behaviour that is particularly prevalent in children whose language skills are only just developing and can often be an expression of frustration that they have not yet acquired the skills to express what they are feeling. Temper tantrums are another form of behaviour that most children of a similar age or developmental stage go through. Happily, just as temper tantrums eventually diminish with age so usually does biting.

The playgroup always follows the same procedures in the event of a child being bitten.

Our procedures are as follows:

• To comfort the bitten child and administer appropriate first aid.
• To admonish the biting child. Explaining why biting is unacceptable, that it hurts the other child and showing the mark or bruise. Also removing the child from the circumstances that provoked the biting for a short period of time.
• We will always inform the parents of the bitten child and ask them to sign an incident form.
• We will always inform the parents of the child that has bitten and explore with them their strategy for dealing with such incidents if they occur at home or elsewhere. (If their strategy was a direct contradiction of our strategy (e.g. parent bites them back) we would explain why we thought this was an inappropriate response and also ask them to sign an incident form.
• To discuss with staff members the incidents concerned and evaluate and monitor the situation for the future.
• In a small minority of cases where biting is persistent to the point of serious concern, it may be appropriate to enlist the help of other professionals e.g. health visitor, area senco, to look closely at any other contributory factors.
• It is not playgroup policy to expel a child for this type of behaviour as it only removes the child and does not address the problem.

Staff members will not disclose the identity of the child that has bitten, as it is vital to maintain the confidentiality of the children concerned.

We ask for your support in the event of your child biting or being bitten and hope that you will understand the need for our policy and procedures which are to safe guard the interests of all those concerned.