The Importance Of Thaviouring Behavior

The word “challenging behavior” can evoke feelings of frustration, anger, hostility or sense of helplessness in any parent, teacher or caregiver of a young child with behavioral challenges. Education.com (2006 - 2012) defines this term: as behavior that may impede with a child’s ability to learn, develop or play in a manner that is socially acceptable. They further define challenging behavior as behavior that could be potentially harmful to the child or others. This type of behavior in a young child, predisposes that child to social problems and academic failure (Klass, Guskin, and Thomas, 1995; Ritchie and Pohl, 1995). Marion (2011) defines challenging behavior as a stimulus that a child reacts poorly to, that in turn challenges the child’s parents or teachers to guide them in a positive manner. Current research indicates that children who have significant challenging behavior will have problems in school. They have issues with social skills, emotional control and language development. These insufficiencies contribute to the lack of skills to succeed in basic academic tasks such as reading (Coi, 1996). Traits that are often attributed to children who exhibit these traits are hyperactivity, inattentiveness and disruptive. Teachers are twice as likely to overlook them, ask them fewer questions and be low in positive responsiveness (Webster-Stratton & Herbert, 1994; Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000). Children with behavioral challenges face far greater difficulties with social and emotional development. Other children will tease and ridicule them, or reject them entirely. These experiences bruise a child’s self-esteem and confidence, they are left feeling depressed and isolated. Once a child accepts rejection, they fight or ...

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...s, to difficulties in conflict resolution to academic success. Parents play a pivotal role in teaching their young children how to appropriately behave or react to a certain stimuli. Positive adult-child interactions such as respect, providing an environment that is not rushed, using calm tones and accepting differences go a long way in changing or guiding a child’s behavior (Marion, 2011). For some children how to react to a certain situation in a positive manner is innate. However, other children need to be taught the skills to productively and successfully navigate conflicts that might arise. This can be achieved through a Direct Model Plan, a PBIS or a Behavior Matrix (Carter & Pool, 2012) The goal of challenging behaviors is to prevent those behaviors from rising, by providing children with the skills to navigate successfully through difficult situations.