Notes to self on communication with children.

• Be inviting and gentle.
• Encourage them to find their own answers.
• Conversation at eye level.
• Listen.
  
• Pause before interfering in any child's activity- sometimes there is more to what you initially see.
• Encourage repetition with materials with phrases like -"Let's do it again!" or "This time, you can try to do it without making a single sound."
• Be the model of the type of problem solvers I want them to become.
  

• Focus on and celebrate every single form of positive activity that comes from the "challenging" children.