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What do challenging behaviours tell us?
Children's behaviours can sometimes be confusing and you may ask yourself, "Why do they keep doing that?" It can be challenging to deal with as a parent or caregiver. It is important to remember that children's behaviours are a powerful communication tool to express their needs or wants.
Children's behaviours often communicate a need, such as the need for connection, comfort, food, a toy, or a nap etc.; OR to avoid something, such as sharing, going to bed, eating a new food or getting buckled in the car seat etc.
Handling Tantrums
All children feel big emotions sometimes: anger, frustration, impatience, sadness. And that’s okay. It’s what they do with these feelings that counts. Grown-ups know how hard it is when big feelings cause big meltdowns, but you can help kids identify and name their feelings and learn to act in a positive way. When you show kids how to manage big feelings and stay calm, you’re showing that there are other ways to deal with overwhelming emotions. But it’s not always easy to be patient when a child acts out, so take time for yourself, too!
CLICK HERE for Top Tips for Handling Tantrums
Tantrums are a normal part of development. They happen most between ages 1 and 3 years, but as so many of us know, some kids are huge tantrum throwers, and some are not. You can't avoid every tantrum, but here are some ideas to help you survive them more gracefully.
Self Regulation
Self-regulation is the ability to manage your emotions and behavior in accordance with the demands of the situation. Acting out is essentially an ineffective response to a stimulus. The parent or teacher needs to help the child slow down and more carefully choose an effective response instead of being impulsive. The key to learning self-regulation skills, is not to avoid situations that are difficult for kids to handle, but to coach kids through them and provide a supportive framework.
Belly Breathing with Elmo
When you connect children to an awareness of how they are breathing and give ways they can change and manage their breath themselves, you give them a life-long tool for healthy self-regulation.
Click here for more belly breathing activities for kids
Your Greatest Tool - Redirection
Redirecting Behaviour
Redirecting behavior is a proactive method for dealing with challenging behavior. It maximizes a child's engagement in learning by giving the child alternatives to a behavior that teachers consider problematic.
Grit ASAP - Resources
How to Plan activities to reduce challenging behaviours
"When children are able to participate meaningfully, their challenging behaviours diminish" -ASAP Grit
ASaP-Backpack-Plan-Activities-1.pdfASaP-Backpack-Understand-Emotions-1.pdfASaP-Backpack-Share-1.pdfReport abuse