– Situation –

Elena is sitting at the side of the room kicking at a nearby chair and making popping noises with her mouth. The rest of the children are at story circle, but Elena was sent to the time-out chair for being disruptive. It is difficult to ignore her continued noises.

What causes challenging behavior and what can we do about it? That is a basic question parents and care-givers face everyday. Some needs are easy to meet, others take more work, and some require outside help.

— Solution —

(This is the second of a multi-part series about dealing with Challenging Behavior, both at home and school.)

Behavioral sifting: the child

In our first segment (Challenging Behavior — Part 1: Conditional Sifting, Exchange, November/December, 2009) we examined the Conditions that might influence a child's behavior. We compared this, the initial Sifting in our process, to that of removing sand or the most common problems from consideration.

Next come Behavioral Sifting. Unlike the sand removed during Conditional Sifting, Behavioral Sifting uncovers bigger bits of gravel or small rocks, comparable to those behaviors that present bigger challenges and need different strategies to sort them out.

This first sequence of Behavioral Sifting will look at the CHILD'S behavior. We begin with Developmental or Age-Appropriate Expectations as well as individual Skill Levels. Next come Perceptual Sifting. These address how a child seeks to achieve a feeling of Belonging in inappropriate ways known as 'Mistaken Goal'* behavior (attention-getting, power struggles, revenge, and ­assumed inadequacy). Finally, we will look at Intrinsic behaviors, those related to a child's Temperament and Birth Order.

We will use the same process as before:

>> Next Page