Types of children's behaviour and strategies to deal with these

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Managing Behaviour- Task 2

Behaviour is the way that a person acts or reacts, and the things that a person does or says. There is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and “children learn their patterns of behaviour from the people around them.” (Beaver, M. 2002. p.213). Young chilldren may display many types of challenging behaviour which are split up into anti-social, passivity, special needs, and distress categories.

Anti-social- “Many children exhibit an aspect of anti-social behaviour at some point in their childhood, which may worry their parents and carers but, if handled sensibly, need not have long-term consequences.” (Mukherji, P. et Al. 2001. p.154). Examples of this are:

  • Violent outbursts
  • Anger
  • Manipulation
  • Biting
  • Attention seeking
  • ‘Terrible twos’

Children who show anti-social behaviour often break rules for attention as they know if they do so then they will still receive attention, even if this is negative attention. Children like to receive attention so by displaying anti-social behaviour, which then makes “the child the centre of attention” results in the behaviour being “done repeatedly and become habits.” (Minett, P. 2001. p.207). An example of anti-social behaviour I have seen in a nursery is when a 3-year-old child continually hit and kicked the other children at the nursery.

Passivity- This is when a child chooses not to do something, or withdraws themselves from a situation. Examples of this include:

  • Elective mutism
  • Withdrawal

In the nursery at my first placement there was a girl who always played alone and if others tried to play with her or talk to her she would walk away.

Special needs- Children with special needs that have emotional and/or social difficulties may show disruptive behaviour. “There are those children whose problems have an effect on themselves; and there are others whose problems are shown by the way they interact with other people.” (Alcott, M. 2002. p.42). Examples of this are:

  • Learning difficulties
  • Giftedness
  • Second language speakers

In my second placement there was a boy with Autism and he would constantly ‘play up’ and on occasions he would run out of the classroom. His behaviour distracted the other children in the class but they were told to ignore him when he was like this. Obviously though this was not always possible, especially when he made animal noises or started rocking back and forth.

Distress- Everybody displays distressed behaviour at some point. “Distress may result from many events, ranging from what may seem fairly small things to major, life-changing events...Distress involves a change in the behaviour of a child.” (Tassoni, P. et Al. 1999. p.97). Examples of distressed behaviour are:

  • Crying
  • Clinging
  • Fear

In my current placement when a baby was left by her mum for the first time she cried continuously for the first 20 minutes as it was an unusual setting for her, and unusual faces.

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There are many different behavioural management strategies. Some of these are:

I will explore a range of possible strategies to manage the child’s behaviour in the example below.

Example:

During my first placement in a nursery there was a boy aged 3 who was constantly tired as he was taken to a nursery at 7:30am and was there until 5pm or 6pm. His home life was believed to be disruptive and he had a lack of routine as he would go to sleep at differing times, and then sleep on and off throughout the ...

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