Day care centers provide children with opportunities to learn important social skills. However, differences in personality and backgrounds among children can inevitably lead to conflict at some point. Day care providers who know how to handle conflict resolution are better equipped to deal with such problems.
Communication is essential to resolving conflict, whether it is among the children themselves, day care workers or even parents and day care workers. Parents and providers who openly communicate with one another regarding the care of children can avoid parents being dissatisfied with children's activities and supervision. Day care workers who voice their differences of opinion with one another throughout the course of the day can avert future blowups. Workers who teach children to do the same can provide the children with some of the necessary skills to resolve issues on their own by talking through their problems.
Approaching the conflict between children in the right way can help mitigate the tension and teach them conflict resolution skills. Day care providers should calmly approach the children while acknowledging the problem and the children's feelings. Conducting a short question-and-answer session to gain the necessary information and then restating the problem to the children can help them see the conflict. Finally, asking the children involved to take part in the resolution by positing their own solutions and choosing one together should help dissolve the issue.
Observation also can be key to avoiding and resolving conflict in day care centers. Susan Baxter of El Camino College contends that day care providers should simply be more observant and, in doing so, step in when it appears that a potential conflict may arise. In most cases, the provider can do so prior to any conflict by sensing the child's frustration. Acknowledging the child's frustration and directing her frustration elsewhere can help avoid conflict.
The environment of the day care center can be altered or used to mitigate conflict, as well. For instance, if children continually are fighting over the same toys or playground equipment, having multiple toys or pieces of equipment can help resolve the problem. Strategically placing equipment in different places throughout the facility can make it much simpler for the day care provider to remove a contentious child from a conflict and mediate it.
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