How to deal with children following a misbehaving child at summer camp?

Datx: How to deal with children following a misbehaving child at summer camp?
I run a free summer camp in the inner city. There is one child, Devin, who is friends with 2 brothers. Devin is a trouble maker and attention starved, while the other two boys aren’t perfect but agreeable. Very often the two brothers will follow Devin’s lead and start making trouble along with him.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to effectively deal with misbehaving children and how to break up this trio?
Is there any way to keep a misbehaving child’s attention and calm him down? What is the best strategy?

Answers and Views:

Answer by lizzylonglegs
Firstly, make sure that your behaviour is honest and that your own actions match your words.

Then you can talk to them from your own point of view and experience of life.

The world around us runs well because people co-operate and obey society’s rules. They stop at traffic lights, for instance, and also drive on the one side of the road, not all over the place. People get up in the morning and make their way to train and bus stations in order to get trains and buses out for the public. We all turn up to catch those trains and buses because we know that society runs well, and that most people do their best.

The young man in question has been well fed and housed because that’s the sort of society we live in. If he does not want to be part of it, there is room for him in down-and-out- housing that welfare organisations run. Or in prison, where society keeps the errant types. Or he can sleep in parks and under bridges, risking his health and well-being.

Someone has decided that he deserves to go to your summer camp, so that ‘someone’ wants him to enjoy his day. Ask him who that someone is, and how he feels about his opportunity to enjoy the day. Tell him, you really care if he has a good time, so what is there in his life that makes him want to be the centre of attention. That sort of talk. Hope this is of some help.

Answer by ang
It might help to know what the offense is, but the first couple of things that come to my mind would be to remove Devin from whatever you are doing at the time. Put him so he is off in a corner by himself, or even facing the opposite direction. I am not sure how old these kids are. The simplest thing to do is just that, remove him from the activity you are doing at the time.

Set a timer for a pre-determined amount of time depending on the age of the child and the offense. Also, if there is something coming up such as centers or a guest coming in to the summer camp to do a magic show or something (obvious just an example) the students need to behave a certain way or they cannot attend. Having someone to help w/something like this is a good idea such as a partner teacher. That teacher can keep the naughty ones while you take the “good” ones type of a thing.

You might also want to set up a reward type system. When the kids do something positive give them a sticker or something on a chart. If they do what they need to do during “center” time, they get a sticker, if they behave appropriately while in the hallway, they get a sticker, restroom breaks-same thing. If they reach a goal of a certain number at the end of the day, they can get a small prize. Anything works. Candy always is a great idea. Kids will pretty much do anything for a piece of candy or two.

Also giving children responsibilities is a huge deal. That is something that usually helps calm their behavior down somewhat. They love any type of attention but it is ten times better if they get positive attention. So if he is doing what he needs to do give him a job around the room or wherever you are. Make it a big deal of what a great helper he is and how you love that he is helping you.

Not sure what type of help you can get from parents, but if the parents are “involved” sometimes it can be helpful to tell them what is going on so they can take privileges away at home. In the inner city sometimes it is extremely hard getting parents involved in much at all, but sometimes you can get lucky and get a couple that like to be involved. Maybe Devin’s parents and the “followers” have parents like that. If they do, you are lucky. Let them know and have them follow through with something at home.

Hope this helps!!!!!! GOOOOOD LUCK