Last week I had the honour to teach a masterclass in managing challenging behaviour. I have been reading all the messages and feedback people sent me, and I was so glad to hear how much that session helped educators and parents alike.

The first strategy I spoke about was giving children more control over situations, so they are more likely to cooperate positively. Remember? You control the main activity and allow them to control some parts of that activity too.

For example, you decide when work time is, but you may let them control what work they do that day by giving them choices. Or you might decide it´s time to work on pencil skills, but they choose which picture to colour, and what type of pencils they want to colour with.

Give children opportunities to control part of the activity, which will help reduce some of the challenging behaviours.

You may need to use a Lámh sign with that, so this week I will teach you the sign for TO CHOOSE/ CHOICE.

So, the SIGN OF THE WEEK for Monday the 15th of February is TO CHOOSE