Posted By :  Dr. Smita Pandey Bhat, Gurgaon, India
On 26.8.2009     Mail Now

U – 51 / 8, DLF Phase III, Gurgaon, Delhi – NCR, INDIA     Phone:9818282106

Behavioral problems in children are common these days. The children throw tantrums, or do not listen to their parents, or do not pay adequate attention in studies, they do not eat properly or do not like to take the balanced diet and so on. Sometimes they love to throw stones on animals or they bully other children who are younger than them or they defy the authorities. If this is the case then it may be a serious problem leading to conduct and opposition ally defiant disorders. We should keep an eye on them and if they are highly aggressive then we must seek psychological treatment for it. Such treatments include, ignoring, time outs, reward management, withdrawal of reinforcements etc. If your child is throwing tantrums, ignore their behavior. If you are saying him or her even that “do not behave like this” then you are giving them negative attention. And the child knows that if he does that behavior then he would get attention from the authorities. So best technique is to not to give any attention to them. Similarly, if the child does not listen to you, give him a time out. Time out is the technique of sending the person to the safe but uninteresting place where he has to sit their without doing any activities eg: asking your child to sit in the corner of the room facing the wall. You have to specify them that your time starts when you start facing the all, withholding all the activities. Then know the interests of your children and try to manage it terms of rewards eg: If your child likes chocolates then give him chocolates only when he gives the desired behavior. Similarly, you can give tokens or stickers etc. to be exchanged for the rewards, defined beforehand. eg: One token could be exchanged with one “parantha” or two tokens could be exchanged for one favorite T.V. show, seven tokens could be exchanged for an outing and so on.

Actually, the selection of the technique depends upon the analyses of behavior according to the ABC model.” A” means antecedent so it is the cause of the behavior. “B” means behavior itself and “C” means the consequences resulting from that behavior. The basic conceptualization is that if we remove the causes itself we can improve or modify one’s behavior eg: if two children are talking in the class then changing the environment itself  i.e. changing their seats. This is called as environmental manipulation changing the cause of the behavior and manipulating it. The another method is to change the behavior itself, eg: giving them something that interests them more than talking .The third step is changing the consequences itself e.g. talking behavior followed by a time out. Thus understanding the basics of behavior we can manipulate the antecedents, behavior and consequences. These practices could be applied with the help of a psychologist to modify those behavioral problems.