Features

Behaviour - Choice words

How should early years practitioners deal with a child who is swearing in their setting, and what are the causes of this inappropriate behaviour, asks Caroline Vollans

A car journey home from my daughter’s nursery one hot afternoon sticks in my memory. Road etiquette that day was not good, including mine. Not immune to the fractious atmosphere, I expressed my frustration with a short expletive. My three-year-old continued to repeat it all the way home, not quietly. Windows rolled up, I kept mum for the rest of the journey.

A friend was asked to see the head teacher of her son’s primary school due to an incident of swearing. During the meeting, her son helpfully explained, ‘There is one thing I need you to know Miss, I do come from a swearing background.’ Unpalatable though a lot of swearing is from young children, the occasional word provides amusement and anecdotes for years to come.

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