3 Yr. Old Biting Agressively

[willowbee]

My 3 yr old is in daycare.  She has recently started biting her classmates, mostly to prevent someone from taking a toy, now however she is biting for what seems to be no reason.  She understands she is not to hit or bite and the last thing she says when being dropped off is that she will not bite today.  Then it happens all over again.  I revoke her priviledges, movie, book, treat, outdoor activity which upsets her, and she understands this is because of bad behaviour at daycare but doesnt deter her next time.  What to do??

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

How are they managing the behavior at the daycare setting? Hopefully they are supervising her closely in order to prevent likely episodes. When she does engage in any aggressive behavior, including biting, it's important to remove her from proximity to the other children and place her in a time out arrangement for a few minutes. After the time out she could return to play, but initially by herself. If that phase proceeds well, she should be permitted to play with only one other child at a time for the duration of that day. At home, you can intervent by employing time out as well. Removal of privileges is generally not a very useful management tactic for such a young child.

[Chyrie]

As a child care proffessional I agree with the Doc. In a day care, children under the age of five are not allowed to be put in time out persay, but can be removed from the other children for private play and to talk about something they did that was wrong. Is it sudden changes that are triggering the behavior? You mentioned that at first it was because of toys. Maybe there is a lack of toys that are similar? Only two dolls in the House center, but 5-6 girls playing there? Is it happening to the same child? Is she biting only little boys and no little girls? How is her teacher handling the situation as is?
When there is one adult to a room full of toddlers, you cant have an eye on each one at all times. But by asking her teacher to watch whats going on around her more closely you may find a pattern to it. Finding the trigger is almost the only way to curve the behavior. Without knowing why she is doing it, ( which she herself may not know) how can you expect her to stop?