Liza Rivas

Working as a school psychologist one of the most controversial topics between parents and a preschool that I have experienced has been biting.  Yes, biting.  Parents whose child is bitten tend to get angry, frustrated and intolerant with the situation.  Parents of the child that is biting may be confused and ashamed sometimes also frustrated; believe me I have been there as a mom.  This has incredibly been one of the top topics that has created most conflicts in many preschools that I have assisted.  So let’s go over the possibilities of why a child bites.

When children do not have much vocabulary and feel excited, sad, frustrated they need a way to express emotions.  What do they do? In some occasions they bite and sometimes they bite consecutively.  What can parents do?

There are observation papers that indicate the when, how, where and why of the situation.  When the biting occurs that child needs to be taken apart for 1 or 2 minutes, the adult should explain that they may not bite and that it hurts, then the adult should ask the child to apologize. The adult may help the child role-play a positive way to handle the situation and finally let the child go back to the routine.

In other occasions you may have the child that stopped biting, but for some reason started again.  Sudden simple changes in a child’s life may be great changes in theirs; therefore they may be anxious or frustrated. 

One of the most important keys is that they should be observed; parents should get really involved and quality time is very important. 

I have expressed in previous entries that we need to find the reason behind a behavior.  The key to understanding and modifying a certain unwanted conduct is finding the root of that problem.

So, both parties should calm down and act upon the situation and positive outcomes will arrive.  They eventually stop biting!