Hope for America!!

[Losty]

and if he responds to positive your warm gentle tone, with a kick to the gentiles and a loogie to the face??

I will admit, this method is easier if you do it from the start. But if a child were to kick me and spit on me, my reaction would obviously be to tell him/her that I simply cannot talk with someone who is acting so mean. Then I would completely ignore them until they seemed calm. Then I would try again. Patience is important with kids. I have personally seen this method work with "severely behavioral" children. I used to volunteer in a classroom with severe autism kids, and this method generally works even on them. While they may not understand why they can't bite you many could at least work out that if they bite you you'll ignore them. Kids don't like to be ignored.

Also, just to add. This generally works on adults too. The only difference being that with adults, if they never stop the bad behavior, you should just ignore them forever. Where as with children, if they never stop the bad behavior, you should probably look for some help because you can't ignore them for too long.