I decided to go with option number #2 researching my own topic dealing with Bad Behavior in Early Childhood. In young children, challenging behaviors are apparent in a number of ways. Some children may act defiantly and refuse to comply with the requests of teachers. In some cases, defiant episodes culminate in physical and emotional outbursts such as temper tantrums, antisocial, bullying, and including violent acts such as biting, kicking, pinching, punching or hair-pulling, and verbal aggression or taunting--may also occur among children. Other forms of challenging behavior include lying, whining, stealing, inattention and property destruction.
Behavior sometimes stems from issues related to family, home-life, neglect, poverty, drugs, physical abuse, and mental illness within the family. Whatever the case may be researchers have a deeper understanding what affects children behaviors by identifying the source of the behavioral issues and responding positively to the child’s needs. Some techniques can include:
Behavior sometimes stems from issues related to family, home-life, neglect, poverty, drugs, physical abuse, and mental illness within the family. Whatever the case may be researchers have a deeper understanding what affects children behaviors by identifying the source of the behavioral issues and responding positively to the child’s needs. Some techniques can include:
- activity or group of peers--to avoid the stimuli that triggers misbehavior
- changing the child's setting environment.
- offering options and choices may lend feeling of empowerment and minimize the frequency of misconduct.
Denice-
ReplyDeleteActivity groups would be a great way to offer behavior intervention training with groups of children in a not so threatening way. That is an awesome idea.
Denice,
ReplyDeleteAs we know there is a reason behind all behaviors. Research investigating causes would really be interesting and extensive. Do you think there would be a problem getting consent from parents? Do you think there might be cultural concerns?
One thing to keep in mind when looking at "bad" behaviors, is that all behaviors are communicative and all behaviors meet some sort of need. Yawing is a behavior that indicates fatigue or a need for oxygen. Blinking is a behavior that indicates the eye needed lubrication or to clear some sort of debris. So when we look at a child's behavior in terms of good or bad, we sometimes loose sight that the behavior is really a way to communicate a need the child has that is either unmet, or the "bad" behavior is easier or has a better result for the child than the adult desired behavior.
ReplyDeleteAs you said, looking at the environment is one way to manage the behavior. Looking at the environment is a way to analyze the behavior and making modifications to avoid the behavior in the first place. And I agree, that skills training both one on one and in groups is a great way to help children grow and mature into more desired behaviors. However, an early child professional must be proficient at completing functional assessments of behaviors (both "good" and "bad") to understand what group instructional activities would fit with the child's current level of development.
A resource you might find helpful is CSEFEL - http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/
~Lora