Building Blocks of Behaviour in Early Childhood

Through their Building Blocks of Behaviour, the authors of this professional learning book empower Early Childhood educators to better understand children's behaviour and improve their practice in Early Childhood settings.

Let's talk about behaviour in Early Childhood.
If you are an Early Childhood educator, you already know that caring for and educating young children is joyful, meaningful and sometimes incredibly hard. Behaviour can feel confusing, relentless, and emotionally demanding, especially when you are working within a system where the approach is idealised, unrealistic, or doesn't quite fit the children in front of you.

Kerry Murphy and Sarah Doyle know how this feels. As early childhood educators, they have experienced the highs and lows, made mistakes, gained experience, learned, reflected and found a new approach. In this book, Kerry and Sarah explore their focus on the reasons behind behaviours as a starting point. They outline the conceptual Building Blocks of their approach and help you to better understand children's behaviour, empowering you to transform your practice in Early Childhood settings.

They start with a simple but powerful idea: misbehaviour is not something to fix, but something to understand. Children's behaviour is learning in action. It is shaped by their experiences, relationships, bodies and nervous systems. Self-regulation is a lifelong process, not a box to be ticked. Structured around eight building blocks of behaviour, this book doesn't offer quick fixes or universal strategies. Instead, it supports you to think differently, stay curious, and scaffold regulation in real, messy, multi-child early childhood spaces.

Written by early educators, for early educators, this book is a practical, compassionate companion for those trickiest moments, for children and for you.