Helping Children With Challenging Behaviors
by Steffen Saifer, Education Specialist, Region XHead Start Technical Assistance Support Center, Portland, Oregon
If you have a child in your class who exhibits extreme negative behavior (such as defiance, physical or verbal aggression, cruelty, or self-abuse) you should work with your program's mental health consultant to: 1) Determine possible root causes of the behavior and begin the process of changing it (transformation); 2) Intervene positively when the behavior occurs to begin to change the behavior and instill self-control and self-efficacy (intervention); and 3) Change your own behavior and/or the physical environment to prevent the negative behavior from emerging again (prevention).
Transformation:
There is a cause for all behaviors, although it can sometimes be difficult to determine the cause. Children behave in a negative way for a variety of reasons, including: the behavior works (the child gets what s/he wants, be it a coveted toy or attention); it's a habit; it's what is modeled and expected at home and in the neigh borhood; it's an expression of anger, fear, or other stresses (even very young children feel complex emotions but often cannot express them appropriately); and/ or there is lack of control for physical reasons (poor nutrition or health, allergies, brain chemical imbalances, etc.). Work with family service staff and others to alter the root causes of challenging behavior in the child's life. Understanding the possible causes will make you more empathetic toward the child and your empathy may be the single most important thing needed to help the child.
Intervention:
The best intervention strategies assume ignorance, not malice, on the part of the child. Teach the child more positive and productive alternative ways to get her/his needs met. Validate the child's needs and feelings first and then provide as much help as necessary (for some children a great deal of highly directive help is needed) to practice a different behavior. For example, for a child who pushes another child to get a toy, tell her/him, "You really want that toy and I'm going to help you get it, but I can't let you hurt someone to get it. This is a safe classroom and I won't let anyone hurt you or let you hurt anyone." Then, keeping both children together, teach them the words to use to negotiate aturn, atrade, or some other mutually agreeable solution. It is important that this be done with both children because negotiation is best learned during interaction. This will take time and energy, but there are seldom short cuts to changing behavior. Notice this strategy of teaching appropriate behavior does not include use of time out, consequences, or other punitive approaches. Most children with chal lenging behavior already feel demoralized and power less and punishment only supports those feelings.
Prevention:
Your most effective strategy for helping children with challenging behavior involves the creation of a classroom where children feel empowered. They must have opportunities to make real choices, take on leader ship roles and appropriate responsibility, positively impact others, demonstrate competence, receive individual attention, be appreciated and supported, be taken seriously, and given challenges. Messages about empowerment are sent to children through choices that are made about the physical environment of a classroom, daily schedules, procedures and routines, and types of responses to their inquiries. Curriculum strategies that include positive, prosocial interactions (such as cooperative movement games) and practice at dealing with conflict (role plays, puppets, etc.) are extremely helpful.
For more information, see Practical Solutions to Practically Every Problem: The Early Childhood Teacher's Manual (Redleaf Press, 1990).
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