Behaviour - is anything a person does, says, thinks or feels.
There are positive and negative behaviours. Our aim as parents, is to affirm and increase positive behaviour and change negative behaviour.
Successful behaviour change cannot occur, unless we successfully understand the reason why the behaviour is occurring in the first place. Behaviour is happening for a reason. It can be a person’s communication tool... a communication tool to tell us “something is going on that they do not feel equipped, to manage".
Dealing with challenging behaviour in children.
Often, our first instinctive response to challenging behaviour, actually reinforces it.
Try and follow these 3 steps:
- recognise the type of behaviour
- resist your first reaction
- respond in a way that does not reinforce the behaviour
- try and focus on what your child does well, don't just notice the negatives
- be consistent, don't warn them of actions which you are unprepared or unable to follow through with
- deal with the present situation, do not dig up past history, focus on the behaviour, rather than criticise them in general terms. Be aware of the reason for the behaviour. Did they intentionally misbehave, or was it an accident?
- hold and/or talk, to the child/young person following any discipline. Make sure they feel loved, wanted and secure.
Please see our content pages for information on specific behaviours.