BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS IN THE NURSERY

A questionnaire survey of all 70 teachers working in nurseries and in one nursery school was undertaken in a West Midlands Education Authori ty. The questionnaire used was a modification of that used to gain inf ormation from primary school teachers in the same authority at an earl ier date about the troublesome behaviour of pupils. The aim was to det ermine the types and the frequency of pupil behaviour which the teache rs found trying and a hindrance to their work. Twenty-nine teachers re sponded and analysis of the results showed that 'aggression' and 'talk ing out of turn' were the behaviours that caused teachers most concern at the 3 to 5 year age range. As in previous studies with older child ren, boys were identified as being generally more troublesome than gir ls.