The ABC of Behaviour
Tantrums are natural part of childhood wherein the child is still learning to be independent, exploring their surroundings, testing their boundaries, trying to cope with their feeling, they might be upset, tired, hungry or uncomfortable in a new situation. Different children express it in different ways, some are vocal and some are physical while others may get into a shell. As the child learns to build their language skills and handle their big feeling, their tantrums tends to decrease.
As parents we need to help the child to handle the tantrums in a healthy manner. We need to observe the child’s behaviour over a period to find out the reason for the tantrums.
- If its lack of sleep, we could comfort the child and ensure he gets adequate sleep.
- If the child wants to do an activity which is not appropriate, we can patiently wait till he calms down and later talk to them or help them with the right behaviour. If we give in by comforting the child or giving whatever the child wants, then it leads to reinforcing the negative behaviour of the child. Being consistent and calm is the key to help them overcome their big feelings.
- Need for more attention is another reason. For eg most children throw a tantrum when parents are working, they need to step out etc. So we need to plan our activities when the child is engaged or having a nap.
- Having few rules and routine helps both the adult and child to interpret and express their needs in ways that are appropriate to the situation and environment.
The ABC model of behaviour helps us to break our observation into three parts
- Antecedents (A): what happened just before the behaviour occurred.
- Behaviour (B): the specific action(s) or behaviour of interest.
- Consequences (C): what happened just after the behaviour occurred.
Antecedents : Analysing the situation just before the behavior gives us an insight, clue, what triggered the incident.
Behaviour : How did the child react, is it screaming, throwing, blowing raspberries, hiding, stomach pain, snatching things.
Consequence : What the child gets as a result of the above behavior or the reaction of the adult due to the behavior.
We need to observe and write down the ABC of the child behavior for a longer stint. This will help us to analyze the issue faced by the child. Depending on the reason we could either avoid such triggers or help the child overcome the problem. Once the trigger is eliminated, the positive behavior is reinforced, consequently the positive behavior results in positive consequence.