u/Hairy_Interview_5537

I work in Childwatch at Burn Boot Camp and was wondering if any other workers have dealt with a situation like this or have advice.

Most of our kids are wonderful, and I’ve worked with many of them for over a year now. There’s one set of siblings in particular that I’ve known since I first started. Their mom comes to camp almost daily. One child is preschool age and the other is in kindergarten.

They actually used to be some of my favorite kids, but over time the behavior has become increasingly difficult to manage. Both children are frequently aggressive toward other kids. We’ve had issues with hitting, pushing, pulling chairs out from under children, rough play, and intentionally upsetting other kids. The older child has also started coming in very dysregulated at times: kicking, screaming, and occasionally kicking staff or other children.

The other day, we had a new member bring her two little ones. Both siblings teamed up on a 2-year-old and were pushing her around. I corrected them calmly and reminded them to keep their hands to themselves, and the older child responded, “I don’t like her.”

We’ve talked with mom many times over the past several months about struggling with following directions, keeping hands to themselves, and interacting appropriately with other children. She has mentioned that they may be overwhelmed from school, which I completely understand, but we haven’t seen much improvement over time.
We’ve tried timeouts (allowed at our location), redirection, calming techniques, positive reinforcement, talks/explanations, and giving them space to regulate.

Unfortunately, nothing has been consistently effective long-term, and the behaviors are starting to impact the experience and safety of the other children in the room.

At this point, staff is feeling a little stuck and unsure what else we can do within the limits of Childwatch.
Have any other Burn Childwatch workers dealt with something similar? What strategies helped? How did your location handle it?