Page 35 - GM-Tanya the Tattling Rattler

You may want to focus on coaching or helping type behaviors. If a child tells another, “Don’t get upset just because they won’t share, just do something else,” you can reward that child for Good Thinking and for their coaching. The not sharing situation should have become a tattling situation but it allowed the child to teach and that should be acknowledged and encouraged.
You can make a large copy of the Exercise and post it in convenient locations. You can reinforce its use and reward those who are using it rather than engaging in habituated tattling behavior. In a classroom situation, ask or a volunteer to tell about any opportunity that they had to tattle but chose o handle it differently. You want to be specifically alert for anyone who chose to “teach don’t tattle.”
If you are aware of anyone who has the habit of tattling , encourage them to share experiences from the previous week. Even if they did tattle, did th y have awareness that there could be a different way of handling the situation? Those who have used less than desirable behaviors (tattling) to get recognition or attention may need additional coaching.
They may need to recognize their anxiety, which may lead to this undesirable behavior and learn to deal with that before they will be able to assimilate the, “teach don’t tattle” behavior.
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