Behavior Management - This Should Be Required For All Parents

April 10, 2008

I took a behavior management class that helped me realize many things.

Learning how to spot a trigger to an event and cutting it off before it happens. As an example, my son who is physically handicapped (cerebral palsy) has tantrums from time to time. After taking the class I learned how to spot the triggers to his tantrums. A trigger would be a smaller event that puts his tantrum in motion.

For him, one of the things was math homework. If he saw a page filled with word problems, he would instantly get stressed out and then have a tantrum. By letting him know before hand that he would only need to do a few of them, the task was easier for him to handle and would keep him from having a tantrum. So by getting rid of that trigger, he was able to complete the work without and episode.

So the best way to deal with a tantrum or explosion is to cut off the source at the trigger. I’ll add an exercise sheet to help you track and get a better grip on triggers and behavior management.

Since I wasn’t a physically violent teen, I can’t give you a real world experience I had. But by telling my mom it didn’t matter how much she yelled at my brother, it wasn’t going to help anyone and it was only making things worse.

I guess you can say that both my brother and I removed our triggers by going to church or our mom removed the trigger by sending us there. The triggers would have been the friends we were associating with.

Getting involved with a youth program is a great solution because many other kids go there for the same reasons. It keeps them off the streets and offers them a way to relieve their agression, they bond with similar people, and there’s other girls and boys to fill that part of the excitement.

russ