Challenging Behavior

"In order to understand better the meaning of challenging behavior, sometimes it is helpful to try to feel inside of, or empathize with, a child’s experience," write Doug Baird and Holly Bishop, in their article "Challenging Behavior" in the Exchange Essential, Children with Challenging Behavior - Part 1.

"What does it feel like to be out of control of one’s feelings, at any age? What is the internal experience that usually accompanies aggression or disruptive, defiant behavior? Do we think this child is enjoying himself? Of course, these behaviors are signals that something is not right in the child’s experience. The child is communicating the pain and distress of this not-rightness to the adults around him, in the way that children under six mostly do communicate about important emotional issues, i.e., through behavior.

"So the first level of intervention is to see how much information about the problem can be gathered from observing and interacting with the child himself; watching and recording the concerning behaviors very closely; trying to identify common precursors and/or results of the behaviors; forming ideas or hypotheses about what is going on for this particular child. At this stage it is important to rule out any medical condition or physical problem that may be causing the behavior, such as poor hearing or undiagnosed pain from some hidden condition like dental decay."

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