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?
Give him a piece of gum?
Don’t bother trying. It isn’t going to hurt the kid.
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”
Roundhouse kick that kid to the moon.
Wait for a couple years. He will stop doing it eventually.
If they are the school’s I would simply not give them to that student anymore, for very obvious reasons that every 9yo should understand. Let him use his own.
Is the act itself disturbing the class or his own ability to concentrate? If not, I do not see any further problem.
Haven’t we all chewed on pencils to concentrate?
Talk to parents, get their written approval to put bitter apple spray on the erasers.
Agreed, putting something repulsive is the key here. This kind of strategy is used for nail biters as well.
That stuff typically only works if you want to stop.
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.
My mom used to threaten me with hot sauce, but I love hot sauce.
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.
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 a bitterant put on my hands and now I just like bitter flavors lol
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.
Why do you want that? Is there some inobvious harm in chewing erasers? Or money is the main problem? Let him chew his own erasers then.
Other kids have to use them.
Communal erasers? Are they extremely expensive in some countries?
If the parents don’t support you, and you can eliminate the existence of mental issues that require treatment or special attention for chewie, and you can’t use a spray solution, I would go for gentle peer pressure. Point it out in class, do a friendly dressing down how none of the other students want to use the chewed on eraser. If he won’t stop if you say so, maybe you can get other kids to do the trick. The unwanted public attention from his peers might be enough. Would your principal be up for a bad cop routine where you can be the good cop?
I understand why you’d go there when it sounds like other options have been exhausted, but I don’t think it would be a good idea. Seems like calling the kid out like this would only open up opportunities for bullying, without doing anything to address the source of the issue.
Point it out in class, do a friendly dressing down how none of the other students want to use the chewed on eraser.
Seems like a great way to get your own private eraser!
They sell stuff called Chewelry; it’s a necklace or wristband you can chomp on.
Maybe get the kid one of those? If not, maybe make one out of a piece of string and eraser?
This one’s for chewin’, this one’s for undoin’.
