Maryln Appelbaum - How to Handle Hard-to-Handle Preschoolers: A Guide for Early Childhood Educators

How
to
Handle
Hard-to-Handle
Preschoolers

This book is dedicated to my son and business partner, Marty Appelbaum. We started our company, Appelbaum Training Institute, in our garages with a dream of helping those who work with young children. His dedication and humor as he works and his love for early childhood audiences and what we do are a constant source of support and inspiration to me and to all those he reaches. Thank you, Marty. You are a man of integrity, wisdom, and kindness, and what more could anyone ask for in a son and a business partner?

Maryln Appelbaum

Copyright 2009 by Corwin Press

All rights reserved. When forms and sample documents are included, their use is authorized only by educators, local school sites, and/or noncommercial or nonprofit entities that have purchased the book. Except for that usage, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information:

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Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Appelbaum, Maryln.

How to handle hard-to-handle preschoolers: a guide for early

childhood educators / Maryln Appelbaum.

p. cm.

A joint publication with the Appelbaum Training Institute.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4129-7002-0 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-4129-7003-7 (pbk.)

1. Children with disabilitiesEducation (Early childhood) 2. Problem childrenBehavior modification. 3. Behavior disorders in childrenTreatment.

I. Appelbaum Training Institute. II. Title.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

09 10 11 12 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Marty Appelbaum

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

M aryln Appelbaum is a remarkable woman. Many of you do not know that she was a high school dropout. Yes, thats right; she was a high school dropout. She grew up in a home of poverty and chaos, was a student at risk, and became one of the hard-to-handle students she writes about in this book. But she had a determination that helped her succeed in spite of the adversity in her life. She was a teenage mom, had two children, and then beat the odds by returning to school to not only finish her high school education, but also to start collecting university degrees and a teaching certificate.

Her studies and her life were always about children. She earned masters degrees in both education and behavioral science. She completed doctoral studies in education and psychology at two universities. She has worked both as a therapist and as a teacher. She found that her real love was teaching hard-to-reach children, and at one point, she owned three early child care centers and packed them with children who were special. She earned a reputation for being able to find ways to handle each of those children so that when they left her centers, they had something special within them, a gift of knowing they could succeed. When she started those centers, she did not have children who were labeled ADHD, bipolar, LD, Asperger, autistic, or OCD. Yet many of the children she taught came to her centers because they had been expelled from other early childhood centers and schools. Many had all of the above labels, but in those days, those disorders were not identified. When these children came into her centers, they were viewed as special challengeschallenges that could and would be met successfully.

Maryln, in addition to writing books, speaking, and helping run the Appelbaum Training Institute, writes thoughts for the day that go out to educators around the world. In one of her recent thoughts for the day, she wrote, You just never know the difference you may make. She then went on to tell the story of a woman whom she had recently seen at a holiday party. The woman said, You probably dont remember me. My son came to your school. We brought him to you because we felt hopeless. He had been labeled mentally retarded at his other school. They said there was no hope. You found the keys to his learning. You gave him the confidence he needed. We saw that he was not mentally retarded. You showed him how he could learn. My son just finished his last year at college. He is now a chemist. I want to thank you.

That is just one of the countless ways Maryln has helped others, which is also what makes this book unique. This book is not only packed with strategies for success, but it is filled with Marylns stories that are success storiesstories that you will identify with, stories that will motivate you to use the strategies in your classrooms. It is a book filled with hope as well as strategies. She believes that with the help of a caring teacher, children can beat the odds.

This book is unique because it takes the different special needs of children and offers strategy-based techniques on how to handle those needs and those children. It is a book that will benefit not only preschool teachers but all people who work with children, including doctors, psychologists, social workers, counselors, and administrators of early childhood centers and preschools. The book will also benefit parents. It is more than a book on behavior management and discipline; it is a book on how to connect with every child. It incorporates psychological as well as educational strategies that can totally transform your classroom and the way you teach.

I want to share with you one more story, and it is a personal one. Maryln Appelbaum is my mother, and I am one of her success stories. I struggled in school and was a challenge to teach. Most of my teachers gave up on me. One went so far as to tell my parents that I would never do well in school. I would never make higher than a C and would never be able to attend college. My mother didnt share this information with me and instead vowed to prove to me that I could achieve anything in life that I wanted. In fact, she taught me that I could help others instead of feeling helpless. She taught me to lead instead of needing to be led. She instilled in me the love of teaching. She is an important voice in the lives of hundreds of thousands of educators across the globe. This book is most certainly the best guide of its kind ever written.