Biting at nursery

[SophieFunnyMummy]

DD has been at nursery since she was 6 months, she is now 2 years and 3 months. She has always bitten other children occasionally when she does not want to share and has on occasions bitten us.
The problem is now she is doing it more and more often at nursery, becoming 2 or 3 times a week. They are not able to punish the children so they sit with her and tell her that is wrong. But she is 2 she does not understand that type of telling off! She has stopped biting us at home but only thanks to the naughty step.
I just dont know what to do about her biting at nursery so any advice from anyone would be gratefully appreciated as really dont know what to do.

What do you mean they are not allowed to punish her? Lots of nurseries won't have naughty step but by sitting with her they are inadventently giving the message you bite you gets lots of attention. You need to chat to them about a consistent behaviour plan. In our nursery for a child of this age (obviously taking into account the childs personality) we would sit her away from the group, in the same room but to the side, tell her firmly 'no biting, that hurts your friend'. Then ignore whilst comforting other child. Give it a minute or two, go back to her and say 'look 'x' is crying because you hurt her, how can we make her feel better?..lets say sorry...give hug etc. Then reinforce no more biting ok. Send her on her way. If its consistent biting they should also be tracking it to see if its a particular time of day/child/toy that sparks it off. We would assign your DD a shadow staff member who would be on hand to intervene very quickly if she did bite.

You really need to chat to the room leader or manager about this. Biting is not unusal behaviour and they should have a good plan in place to help your DD learn this is not acceptable.

There really anything you can do. If it happens at nursery then they wil just have to deal with it.
It is really common and just a normal stage of development for some children.

Have the staff done any observations on your DD to see what triggers the biting?
Every time she bites they should be recording what was happening before and what happened afterwards to try and spot any patterns or triggers. This information will help them to prevent the biting.

It sounds like ahe gets lots of attention for biting too, if they are sitting with her and talking to her. Sometimes children thrive on this. I work with children this age and when a child hurts another child all my attention goes to the child who has been hurt, apart from diving in to seperate them and admonish the assailant. I then go over the top in comforting the victim, reinforcing the message verbally that biting is not acceptable.
The child will then be sat out and asked to say sorry.
I will of course inform both sets of parents, but by then it is normally too late for the child to be punished again by the parents. But I do expect parents to back me up by telling their child that thay are not happy with their behaviour.
Are the staff quite experienced or young and clueless? it makes a huge difference.
Sorry for essay but hope I have helped in some way

purepurple - snap!