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Child swearing


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How do other settings manage a child swearing ? We have had the odd word from children in the past , we generally ignore and it usually stops , if it persists we speak to the child about 'nice words and unkind words' etc - also a chat to the parents.

But - this isn't working with this child ATM - it's in context , but he's not being aggressive (if you see what I mean )

Mum says his grandparents swear all the time in front of him - I've suggested she remind them to stop, as he has started doing it in nursery

So - what tactics could we try ?

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If its persistent and child is too young to understand that it's not appropriate then we subsitute for another word. We had one little boy whom for months would say 'cat ****' 'cat ****' 'cat ****' so we swapped it to cat ship and when he said it we said back oh cat ship and then did boat noises etc but that is what was right for him, rewarding the words with attention can sometimes be the worse thing. For instance we had one boy who we just said 'we don't use that word at pre school' then we walked away as the more we spoke the worse it got, he did also use to walk round pretending to smoke in his words 'mi joint' each child reacts differently buts it's hard finding the right way with each one. It's when other parents come in 'Johnny says Lucy said ****' it all goes up :(

Good luck

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We had an issue with a child swearing at the last setting I worked at, and we just ignored the language because the child was an Irish Traveller and swearing was a common place amongst the adults she lived with. Her mother groped her Aunt's boobs one morning when she came in looking for cash to pay for the child's dinners going "check ya titties". And of course, the conversation about potty training in front of the child was very similar "oh we tried her in pants but all she did was s*** and p*** in them".

 

We found if we made a fuss about it, she did it more, so we just ignored it.

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Isn't it amazing how words can offend people, and the problem of swearing is still offending people to this day. Some children might innocently use a swear word due to hearing it in normal conversations like mentioned above. Other children will use these words because they get a reaction when used, or for attention maybe. So it actually depends on the reason to find a solution. If a child is using a swear word for a reaction or attention then ignore, but if a child is just using normal everyday language due to hearing it a lot, then this is usually where a talk is required.

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