Creating Independence

Managing Bad Behaviour

Sometimes children’s behaviour falls short of our expectations. There are many reasons why this may happen. Below is a list of the most common, everyday causes of unwanted behaviour. By analysing them and eliminating as many of the potential causes of unwanted behaviour as possible we should be able to reduce the number of incidents when a child behaves inappropriately and deal with them more effectively when they do.

The child may feel:

Tired
Hungary
Bored
Unwell
Frightened
Anxious
Frustrated
Restricted

They may be:

Testing the limits or pushing boundaries to see how far adults and other children can be pushed
Unaware of any potential dangers
Exploring the environment
Copying what they think others are doing
Attention seeking
Unable to control their emotions or feelings
Feeling left out or treated unfairly
Unsettled or confused

Children may also show signs of unacceptable behaviour when:

They do not understand what is expected from them
They have a particular learning difficulty, allergy etc
They do not have clear, consistent boundaries to follow

Although there seem to be a lot of causes for unwanted behaviour and you may feel over whelmed at the thought of having to deal with all these scenarios it is worth bearing in mid that the majority of these causes can be eliminated with careful planning.

Click on each of the links above for ideas to avoid unwanted behaviour.