Our ELC team participated in a professional learning session recently with Phoenix Education, focusing on positive behaviour support through the Phoenix Cups framework.

This framework suggests that every individual is born with five “cups” representing core needs: Mastery, Safety, Freedom, Connection and Fun.

Our Staff's Key Takeaways:

• Connection before correction – Building strong relationships with each child is essential.
• Every child’s need for support varies; some require more than others in specific areas.
• Children experience only one emotion at a time.
• Remorse develops around ages 6-7; instead of prompting a child to say “sorry,” you could try saying, “I’m sorry that you got hurt” or “Did you notice that hurt John?”
• Instead of asking, “Why did you do that?” in an accusatory tone, try “Remember when [incident] happened—what was happening for you?”
• Young children act to meet their needs without filtering actions through adult-like values.
• The brain continues developing until age 25, so children are still learning essential skills.
• Over time, children’s instinctive cup-filling behaviours evolve into learned skills.
• Each person has a natural predisposition to larger or smaller cups in different areas, and when a child’s cup is empty, they will instinctively try to fill it using the skills they have.

If you're interested in learning more, there is a little quiz that you can do to discover your own dominant cup by clicking here: Phoenix Cups Website.

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