3 simple strategies to reduce challenging behaviours
By Milena Bakalov
Challenging behaviour is any behaviour that interferes with children’s learning, development and success at play, is harmful to the child other children or adults. Parenting a child with challenging behaviour can be incredibly stressful and overwhelming for families. The good news is that this behaviour is also one that parents can overcome with the appropriate strategies.
The following strategies and ideas below have been proven to work and can benefit all children, not just those with challenging behaviours.First and foremost, we want to ensure that the parent or caregiver focuses on letting the child know that they love him/her even if they don’t always like the behaviour. Every day it is important to do this; The time you do this can vary and can be anytime throughout the daily routine or evening routine such as walking home from childcare – just make sure to set aside time to have fun together. Give your child your undivided attention, let the child choose the activity, and make sure your child knows that you like playing with him/her. These positive moments nourish self-esteem and point the way to more positive moments.
Here are my top 3 strategies to reduce challenging behaviors:
Encourage appropriate behaviour, and minimize the opportunities for challenging behaviour (prevention is key). These tactics are important because in the first decade of life, every experience, positive and negative, affects the permanent wiring of the brain. You can build appropriate patterns if you anticipate trouble, prevent the difficult situation from occurring, and help your child to remember what to do instead of correcting mistakes. This can be done through modelling, role play, and play-based activities.
Set clear limits and enforce them consistently. Your child needs to know what you expect. Be sure you have the time and energy to carry through on our own expectations. If you are willing to sway the rules, then make sure to not set that expectations and most certainly don’t change your mind following the challenging behaviour as this will reinforce the negative behaviour.
Create routines and stick to them. Children feel more comfortable when they know what is coming next. Routines create a sense of stability and predictability all of which help a child to feel safe and secure. For the same reason it helps to give advance notice of changes in activity (“You can slide down three more times, and then it’s time to go home”). Routines can also be supported by visuals to further help reinforce expectations and processing so that even when the words are gone the child still has the image that helps them process what the expectations are or what is coming next.
There is always a reason behind every challenging behavior – if you are ready to learn more about the root causes of the challenging behavior or how to break free from the cycle of this behavior we are here to help.
