I can’t take away the eraser or give it to him only when he asks, because I have more students.
He’s impulsive but nice. His parents know he does stuff like that.
Any ideas?
Long shot but it could be a sign of iron deficiency. Eating, smelling and licking odd things like paper, erasers, I’ve heard of these associations. I even read about a woman who would spend her lunch hour smelling the concrete in the stairwell. Turned out to be iron deficiency.
Chewing ice as well, supposedly it is motivated by iron deficiency.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_(disorder)?wprov=sfla1
Maybe a vitamin b or magnesium deficiency?
Cover them in spicy
Make him write in pen?
Kick in the nuts will do.
Give him gum to chew instead?
Talk to parents, get their written approval to put bitter apple spray on the erasers.
Ooooooh very nice idea!!! Thank you!!!
Agreed, putting something repulsive is the key here. This kind of strategy is used for nail biters as well.
That only works for so long. My mom got special nail varnish from the doctors that was supposed to stop me chewing my nails. Properly vile rotten stuff.
I ended up developing a taste for it.
Me too lol
My mom used to threaten me with hot sauce, but I love hot sauce.
That stuff typically only works if you want to stop.
Something similar to the spray they use on animals after a surgery? It’s safe for consumption but it tastes god-awful to stop the animal licking the wound.
Sounds like it could be a stim thing - impulsive, you say? Any chance there’s (undiagnosed?) ASD there? The mentions of bitter spray reminded me of when my mother tried that to get me to stop biting my nails. I just stopped using my lips and tongue, and only used my teeth…
Anyway, if it’s a stimulation thing, maybe finding an alternative would be easier than getting him to stop entirely.
I’ll find something else too, then. I don’t want to harm him
I’d be curious for a follow-up post if you find a way to help him with this! I was this kid when I was little, and needed help and kindness, but there was no understanding for autistic behaviours back then so what I got instead was bullied. I appreciate that you went looking for help instead of just throwing up your hands 🤗
Hi! So I suggested nail chewing deterrent to the boss, checked that the kids have no allergies, bought the deterrent in a pharmacy and coated all the pencils and part of one eraser (they stop working with the polish).
All it took was one lick (and OMG their faces), they didn’t put the pencils/eraser near their mouth again. I hope they remember the lesson next week lol. I coated all pencils so the kid I wrote the post about wouldn’t get targeted.
I watched the kid that has me particularly worried and he didn’t show interest in putting anything else in his mouth, nor did he have a change in attitude. Now that he isn’t licking stuff, he is somewhat more focused in class?? I have to keep watching.
I’ll update you!!
Yeah, this is exactly what I was thinking, too. You redirect the behavior somewhere safe while still fulfilling the essential need.
Some pharmacies sell a bitter liquid (no idea how it’s called) intended to to put on children’s fingernails to prevent nail baiting. I guess this would also work on erasers.
I had this, it was called Stop n Grow
I eventually got used to and, even liked the taste
Yeah… I discovered I could file the upper layer of my nail to remove the polish. Guess how my nails ended up.
I had a bitterant put on my hands and now I just like bitter flavors lol
Well, there is stuff you paint on kids nails to prevent them from biting them, which basically tastes bitter. Maybe apply this to the eraser?
Maybe get connected to this guy
Give him a piece of gum?
Don’t all children do that?
I used to shew on everything, my friend used to literally destroy pens by shewing them too much. I think it’s normal.
Could be just a bad habit as you say. Boredom. Might be worth checking to see of some kids have any other issues that might put them on an au/dhd spectrum. One of ours habitually destroyed pencils and erasers no matter what we did. Found out later It was anxiety and stress from undiagnosed neurospicyness.
Yeah… Parents noticed something wrong too and he’s being checked.
I have things for students of all ages that for whatever reason need to destroy stuff, and they know I’ll give them the item they prefer no questions asked (but I’m always there to listen to them). Before I figured out why those students were behaving the way they were, lessons were miserable.
One day I offered a girl a tray of used paper sheets to shred instead of the textbook and it changed my life lmaoo
This kid is not destructive, so my usual tactics don’t work. The bitter spray did, tho.
Do like my ol’ dad did make him smoke a whole pack. It’ll put him off forever.
“you can put that eraser in your mouth as much as you want, but first you have to eat this pallet of erasers from the supply storage”
Don’t bother trying. It isn’t going to hurt the kid.
It doesn’t sound like they’re necessarily his erasers though
They are not
It can easily be a chocking hazard, it’s unsanitary, and it can cause the child to be ostracized by peers which can limit their social development.
Is eating erasers going to get you more ostracized than constant nagging from the teacher to not eat erasers?
Personally still going to put the blame there on eraser eater, but the whole point of this post was to find something that actually works to curb the behavior
