Behavior Strategies, Tips and Tools
Ten Ways to Tame a Temper Tantrum
All kids have temper tantrums. But when your child has special needs, those behavioral storms can be more confounding, more damaging, and more difficult to interpret. They're also more likely to be a result of sensory issues, disrupted routine, inflexibility, inability to communicate, or motor planning problems than good old-fashioned bad behavior. Here are ten ways to tame a challenging child's…
Before You Discipline Your Child
You've had it up to here with your child's behavior -- but is it really misbehavior worthy of disciplinary action, or behavior related to your child's special needs that can be better addressed with understanding, support, and accommodations? Often, changing your actions and reactions will change your child's behavior for the better. Ask yourself these twelve important questions before you…
Recognizing a 'Whatever Works' Situation
Sometimes, you have to throw all your other priorities out the window and just focus on getting your child over a rough spot.
Changing the Environment
A definition of "changing the environment," a technique for avoiding misbehavior in children who, due to special needs, are not able to control impulses, foresee consequences, or make good decisions.
Ten Ways Your Child's Behavior Is Like a TV Detective Show
Investigating your child's behavior can make you feel like a detective, searching for clues and figuring out hidden motivations. Take some cues from your favorite sleuths to become a better investigator.
Pick a Consequence, Any Consequence
Conventional wisdom on behavior management for children with special needs is that parents should be consistent and firm. Some kids, though, will respond better to an approach that's a little more creative, fun, and unpredictable. If nothing else is working, it's worth a try.
How to Make a Transition
Do you argue with your child for endless minutes when you need to leave one activity and go to the next? Back that transition time up and be a "human snooze alarm" to give him or her plenty of warning when a change needs to be made.
Counting to 10
Counting to three may work like magic for some kids, but children with special needs may benefit from a little extra time to process instructions and plan how to follow them.
Top 10 Time-Out Spots
Looking for a place to put your kids in time-out where they're not going to enjoy being? Sending them to their room, and their stereos, cell phones and TVs, is probably out of the question. Try one of these spots for a little instant boredom.
Listen to Me!
If what you really want is for your child to listen, stop saying "Look at me!" Eye contact can get in the way of the verbal message you're trying to get through.
Teach Your Child to Succeed
Behavior is something that can quickly go from bad to worse, as a child who feels like a failure starts to believe that failing is all he can do. Use the "Transforming Your Difficult Child" to teach your child that he can succeed, and teach him how to do it.
Lying vs. "Truthiness"
Is your child really lying, or just dealing in truthiness? The term used by Stephen Colbert to satirize politicians and public figures applies equally well to kids who, without malice or intent, state what they wish or believe to be true rather than what actually is.
Is Hoarding a Problem for My Child? - 10 Questions to Ask About Your Child...
Many kids with neurological differences have obsessive collections, and some cross the line into what might be called hoarding. Check this list of ten questions to see how worried your should be.