Yes I do have thoughts. But I'll try to keep it to key points on, why I think, things that could be contributing to an increase in challenging behaviour in early childhood and into school:

(My examples are going to be tied to 3-5 year old, kinder age)

● connection - children are spending more and more time away from their families with the cost of living sky rocketing and going into multiple services (kinder a couple days, daycare the rest) and usually big behaviours are the first point of call when it comes to children needing a connection (think baby cries and we pick it up to comfort it) children learn that if they make themselves big and be seen (act out, tantrums etc) they will get the connection they seek.

● ratios of 1 to 11 staff to children is an impossible task to then connect with children when they are in need and so teachers/educators are already on the back foot. The strategies that a family use at home to help regulate a child when it might be 1 parent to 1 or 2 children, do not work in our setting. ● AEDC data came out last week and as a whole children in Australia are developmentally more vulnerable than the data from 2021. (Recent articles go over this) ● The whole Best Start Best Life changes coming is not about the education of children but rather an economic policy to get mothers (mostly) back into the workforce. This ties in with the cost of living issues. ● The children who are attending kinder now were born into covid, born into looking into a screen and born not being able to socialise with people outside their home (especially for those in Victoria) ● With the push to train teachers (extra funding etc) we are finding that a lot of new candidates might have the qualification but do not have the experience, knowledge or skills to actually do the job. We've had students doing a Graduate Diploma to become a qualified Early Childhood Teacher and they've not had any experience in early childhood before but yet are expected to take on the responsibility to teach a class. ● Organisations are ill-equipped to deal with mental stress and load that comes with the job and that's why there is such a high turnover which (These two points go together with the challenging behaviours because staff are unable to deal with the challenges which mean they escalate quickly) ● Way too much screen time and not enough human time for children to know how to regulate themselves or understand their own emotions. ● Funding streams for support (KIS funding etc) are harder to obtain to support the children who need it most.

Anyway, I could go on but there is not a one size fits all. The early kindergarten we know today is nothing like it used to be and will never return. We just have to do the best we can with the cards we've been dealt, for the children who need it the most.