Furthering My Career

Dealing With A Biter In Preschool

29 May 2018

Barry Myers

Preschool can be tough for some little ones. Some don't adjust very quickly to being away from home, grouped with a bunch of kids that they don't know and adapting to a school-like setting. These changes in their routine can cause stress which can cause them to begin biting other kids, and possibly teachers. Why are these kids biting and what are you to do when it happens? Here, you'll find out.

Why Preschool Kids Bite

Anxiety is a top reason for preschool kids biting each other. Anxiety, coupled with frustration and anger can cause little ones to act out to give them the emotional release that they feel that they need at the time. Many times, the kid doing the biting doesn't completely understand the consequences of this behavior and simply follow their instinct to do what makes them feel better – bite.

As kids gain communication skills, the biting should become less of a problem, but until they reach that point, the biting could continue to be a problem.

After a Bite

Whether your kid is the one biting or the one being bitten, the first thing to do is to talk with the preschool teacher. Find out what action the teacher has taken and how he or she handled the situation.

If the teacher was unaware of the incident, your call may be what was needed to bring it to his or her attention so that action can be taken. Without that conversation, the teacher wouldn't even know that there's a problem and wouldn't be able to help either child work their way through how they are feeling and to learn that biting is not an acceptable behavior at any time.

Talk with your child. It doesn't matter if your kid was the biter or the bitten, they need to talk through their feelings and know that you're there to listen. If your kid is the one doing the biting, have a calm conversation about how badly biting hurts the other person and how they should reach out to the teacher about their feelings when they begin to feel frustrated, angry, or scared. If they know how to handle their feelings appropriately, they might stop biting.

If your child was the one bitten, have a conversation about forgiveness and understanding. Make sure that he or she understands that the other child may have been having a bad day and likely feels bad about biting.

Always begin conversations with the preschool teacher. He or she has been through training to learn how to handle situations such as this. For more information, contact your local preschools.

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