Help and Advice for Children's Entertainers : How to Manage Disruptive Behaviour

The following article offers some help and advice in managing groups of children and how to deal with the disruptive individuals.

If you're performing to large numbers of children, i.e. A school performance, take a lead from the staff. Usually, more challenging children will be placed next to or within reach of a member of staff to contain their behaviour. (This is not as easy at a birthday party as parents may not be so ready to accept their child(ren) need extra managing.) A good idea is to ask the staff / adults to choose participants - they will (hopefully) select appropriately confident, but not overly large characters. State how many children you would like, how many boys, girls or combination of. This way you should receive good couples, co-operative workers etc. If you need older children and your audience is large, ask which area they will be sitting in beforehand. Again, there is a disclaimer here that if it's the child whose birthday it is then you aren't afforded such a choice!

Posture and presence play an enormous part in gaining children's respect. Greet, smile and move around the children who are already seated and perform small acts to a few of the children – this will give you an opportunity to gauge the responsiveness and characters in sections of your audience.

Once all children are present, set out your rules for the show – State how you expect the children to behave, how you want them to sit and respond if you ask for a volunteer. A key element is a gesture / action / sound / word / for when you want them to be quiet. This can be practised several times in a fun way to reinforce to the children and also let you see who complies and who doesn't! Make sure you are in control of the whole group before exciting them any more! Almost a follow-my-leader approach with you as the leader, perhaps raising hands for louder, lowering for quieter and a quick action of crossed wrists to open arms at waist level for instant quiet.

Children respond well to, and like to be told what they are good at, so word as many of your comments as you can about behaviour with a positive slant. "Well done...", "Oooo I like the way you . . .", "Yes I can see lots of you . . .", "Excellent this row are...", "WOW! I can't believe that you are..." etc. Others will hopefully copy the behaviour you are praising. Try to ignore the poor behaviour and encourage the good as this usually has a domino effect with the majority wanting to be praised.

Rewards are usually popular with younger children, stickers (can be personalised relatively cheaply) can be used very effectively to manage behaviour. Once again at the beginning of the show, select a child / children who are behaving appropriately and make a ‘show' of presenting them with a sticker. It only takes a few stickers to be given out every so often to engage the majority of the audience in the hope that they get a sticker too.

Entertaining Shy Children

An overly shy child, who initially appeared keen but clams up in front of an audience, can be praised for being brave to help / helping start the trick, now I need another helper (given a reward sticker) and returned to their seat. Quieter children were probably very keen to take part but weren't quite confident enough to participate fully. The fact that they have stood in front of the audience and held something or perhaps even just had a sticker may be a great achievement.

Disruptive Children

If you have already chosen a 'loud' child to help and you need to speak to them about their behaviour, duck down and speak to them at their eye level with direct eye contact. State exactly what you want them to do “I need you to . . . please”. This is a direct and non threatening approach that hopefully will get your message across quickly. Also announce to the audience what the child is going to do, using their name in a non comical way. This should help to further focus the child on what is required of them by you and their peers. Have a 'get out clause' that you need an extra helper and swap them (after rewarding the first child) the disruptive child may feel they have played a part, been rewarded and settle into the performance.

If you need to ask a child to do a task for you, give them a choice (rather than allowing them a yes or no answer). Phrase the question so that either way they conform to what is required "Would you like to hold the red or the green scarf?" rather than "Would you like to hold a scarf please?", "Can you hold this scarf please?" This way the child feels that they are in control and making decisions but you are guiding them to the result you require.

If a child has not responded to the positive comments and continues to be disruptive you could perhaps use the following method... For the overly loud child who consistently calls out and heckles, politely ask the child's name. Remain calm, do not allow the child to see that they are ruffling you (this will only fuel their attempts), then make a polite request (with a straight face and direct eye contact) to the child to be quiet using their name. This is then a personal message to the individual. If they continue to disrupt, once again use the child's name, ask that they be quiet / not shout out / sit down etc – state that if you have ask them again you will ask them to move to the edge of the audience / near an adult etc. On the third interruption – follow through with your reprimand, if necessary call upon the adult in charge to support you with this. This is a final action. The fact that you have had to speak to an individual and interrupt the show initially, may encourage the child to sit correctly, and should focus the adults to keep a close eye on him / her.

When making selections, try to avoid choosing the child with the puffed out chest, bursting to get your attention or the timid child grasping their friend - try to pick someone in the middle. Be warned however, there will always be the child who knows how to sit beautifully, look angelic, get chosen and then change character!! You will undoubtedly find that you will choose a less than ideal assistant from time to time.

As an entertainer, you obviously need to make your mark immediately and have a relatively short space of time to do so. Let the audience know you are in control and use your body language to show this too. Stand tall, shoulders back and head held high (you can be other characters later in the show once you are in control).

Above all be positive with the children, encourage those who are co-operating, try to ignore those who aren't and enjoy making them laugh.