Understanding Children's Behavior - Assignment Example

Understanding Children’s Behaviour Task Bullying is “the use of power and aggression to cause distress or control another” (Lamb, Pepler, & Craig 2009, p. 356) done repeatedly and unprovoked (Bullock 2002, p. 130) adversely affecting both the victim and the bully (Ontario Ministry of Education 2007, p.3), and even the witness (Whitted & Dupper 2005, p. 167). Bullying is categorised as: direct bullying – open display of power through physical aggression (hitting, kicking, pushing, and tripping) and verbal aggression (name calling, mocking, and making sexist, racist or homophobic comments); indirect bullying – also known as relational/social aggression is less obvious and less visible (spreading rumours/gossips, and exclusion/rejection from a group); and cyberbullying – uses the Internet, cellular phones, or other technology to harm individuals. (Lamb et al. 2009, p. 356-57; Ontario Ministry of Education 2007, p.3) Bully children are impulsive, domineering and inconsiderate (Bullock 2002, p. 130), displaying "aggressive personality pattern combined with physical strength" (Olweus 1991, p. 425). The bully’s self-regard is an inflated self-esteem, and a powerful/superior feeling over others; whereas, the victim’s appears weaker, passive, insecure, and anxious, and reacts by crying or withdrawing (Bullock 2002, p. 130). Van Cleave & Davis (2006) revealed, children with special health care needs were more likely to be victims, while children with chronic behavioural, emotional, or developmental problems were more likely to be bullies or both (cited in Lamb et al, 2009, p. 357). Common indicators of bullying are physical symptoms – headaches, stomach aches; psychosomatic symptoms – difficulty sleeping, bed-wetting; depressive symptoms; anxiety symptoms; poor school performance – low grades, dropping out; and suicidal tendencies. Specific indicators for bullies are drug/substance use; indifference to other’s feelings; aggressiveness or being manipulative with siblings, parents, and others or with animals; and possessing unexplained items or extra money; while for the victims are absenteeism, refusal to attend school, drop in school motivation; losing items, needing money, being hungry after school, injuries, bruises, damaged clothing, broken items, and threatens to hurt self or others. (Lamb et al. 2009, p. 358) These damaging symptoms warrant intervention, especially so bullying (commonly starts in childhood), if disregarded may result to more frequent and severe bullying behaviours that may persist and worsen to adulthood (Batsche & Knoff, 1994; Baumeister, 2001, cited in Bullock 2002, p. 130). Bullying is a relationship problem, thus interventions must include relationship solutions involving parents – as domestic violence breeds bullying (Baldry 2003, cited in Lamb et al. 2009, p. 358), teachers and school officials – as bullying commonly happens in schools (Whitney, Rivers, Smith, & Sharp, 1994, cited in Bullock 2002, p.131), primary care physicians and mental health physicians – as behavioural study is their expertise. The bully’s aggressive behaviour must be stopped by teaching him/her empathy and pro-social behaviour, and by reducing reinforcement bullying patterns within peer groups; the victims must be supported by developing in him/her assertive strategies and friendship skills, and providing him/her such opportunities; parents must be helped exemplify and foster healthy family relationships (Lamb et al. 2009, p.359); and schools must promote a culture and climate fostering positive social relations. Task 2 Self-confidence is the belief in one’s self – the ability, and power to achieve things (White 2009, p. 103). Without this, one would have difficulty interacting with others and in dealing with life. Thus, developing confidence in children is crucial in their growth and development, as this would enable them to become self-made individuals later. However, building and developing confidence in children is a long and enduring process that entails love and patience. Children’s attachment to the mother and significant others for emotional security is truly vital to their healthy growth; however, equally important is the children’s ability to separate without anxiety and to feel secure in their growing independence. Children with secure attachments to parents and significant others build relationship with others more easily – This can be achieved if parents trust their children’s ability to relate with others. (Hillen 2009) By allowing children to socialise with others exposes them to other relationships vital to their growing emotional needs. In socialising with others, growing children learn to accept and appreciate other people aside from their immediate families, which are important in developing their motivation, self-concept and self-esteem, which are equally vital in developing their self-confidence. Growing children need motivation – an internal state/condition that activates/energizes behaviour (Huitt 2001, par. 1), as this would give them the drive to learn things, discover more, and achieve greater goals, which in turn would develop in them self-confidence. Furthermore, motivating growing children to succeed would consequently develop in them self-regulation and self-control, which consequently make patient, assiduous and purposeful. Some simple ways to promote motivation in growing children are being patient in explaining things to them, being consistent and reasonable in correcting them, progressively giving children challenging tasks without demanding fast results, teaching children to be enthusiastic, exposing children to new ideas and environments that would trigger their curiosity and further learning. (Bakhitova-Niazoff 2005) Related to this, children must also be taught with all the things necessary to help them create their own self-concept – “the totality of a complex, organized, and dynamic system of learned beliefs, attitudes and opinions that each person holds to be true about his/her personal existence” (Purkey 1988,cited in Huitt 2009, par.1), as many believe that early development of self-concept in children is enduring (Hattie 1992, p. 119) and that “self-concept is… the basis for all motivated behaviour... giv[ing] rise to possible selves… that create the motivation for behaviour” (Franken 1994, p. 443). Related to self-concept is the self-esteem – generally understood as to how one feels about or values one’s self. These two concepts are closely related in such a way that as children come to appreciate their own self, the higher their self-esteem would be, and the higher their self-esteem, the more motivated they want to succeed making them more confident as they grow and deal with more difficult circumstances. Thus, for children to develop a high self-esteem, parents should foster in their children the acceptance of oneself and even of others, the appreciation of differences, and the respect of others. Task 3a Promoting positive behaviour is important in human society as this fosters cooperation and peacefulness. Every parent wants their children to be cooperative and well- behaved, but developing positive behaviour in children takes time and effort as all children naturally go through different stages of social, emotional, and behavioural development with each stage requiring specific needs. This however will not overwrite the fact that developing positive behaviour in children is well worth the trouble, not to say the fact that this is what parenting is all about – to contribute a productive human resource to society. This task becomes even more challenging today as the world becomes more complex. Contrary to traditional belief that young children are still incapable of understanding reason, early years are in fact the best period to develop positive behaviour. Thus, parent’s role becomes crucially important as children’s first ever learning starts at home. In typical family settings, parents are children’s most influential role models as most kids learn social interaction and social values by watching and listening to their parents. Thus, parents and their children’s adult caregivers are expected to conduct themselves respectably. Parents providing good role models to their kids are most likely to develop positive behaviour in them. (Promoting good behaviour 2010) The use of physical punishment is a widespread practice at home and even in schools before. However, this is widely discouraged today because of its alarming negative effects. It is found that although physical punishment may stop the bad behaviour for sometime it becomes less effective as the child becomes used to it and it can even strengthen aggressive behaviours in the child. Moreover, as physical punishment is carried out, emotions usually become high that it ends into child abuse. Instead, parents are encouraged to use positive parenting at home which focuses in developing the child’s choice of good behaviour – the essence of child discipline. (Family.org editorial staff 2009, sec.8) Positive parenting makes use of rewarding and encouraging strategies, for example the use of reward system. Since “children respond well to boundaries, [they will likewise] respond well to reward schemes for displaying positive behaviour” (Positive parenting at home 2010, par.4). Some suggested good ways to reward a child are beat the clock – a good method to encourage a dawdling child, the good behaviour game – effective in teaching a new positive behaviour, good marks/bad marks – best for difficult and highly active child, developing quiet time – most useful when parents are busy at home (Family.org editorial staff 2009, sec.6). To immediately stop misbehaviour the time-out method is effective, although ignoring the misbehaviour is still the best way of stopping it (sec.3). “Behaviour noticed is behaviour repeated” (Lee 2009, sec. 2). Consistency in rewarding and punishing a child is important to avoid confusion in the child. Encouraging positive behaviour in children can be summarised as: helping children understand appropriate behaviour, praising good behaviour, setting clear consistent boundaries, helping develop self-esteem, using rewards, and allowing children the opportunity to be in control situations (Lee 2009, sec. 4). Task 3b The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill incorporates four clauses giving Sure Start Children’s Centres a statutory legal basis. Currently, there are over 3,000 children’s centres operating and servicing almost 2.4 million children below five years old with no legal existence. Although the Childcare Act 2006 requires local authorities at their choice to improve young children’s well-being and to provide an integrated and accessible early childhood services that would benefit children and their parents, local authorities achieve this by putting up children’s centres, which the Bill further guarantees to become an established part of the support infrastructure intended for young children and their parents. (Department of Children, Schools and Families 2010, p.1) This Bill promotes positive behaviour in many related ways. First, Bill addresses in an integrated framework the development needs of young children by supporting Children Centres and their families and by compelling local governments to lead on such task. This is crucially important as this recognises the leading role of the state in promoting positive behaviour among its people. Moreover, this promotes the view that promoting positive behaviour is not only a family responsibility but also a social responsibility. Secondly, the Children Centres have become “a key mechanism for improving outcomes for young children, while reducing inequalities, and helping to bring an end to child poverty” (DCSF 2010, p.1) The Bill ensures that Children Centres are safe grounds for children, as the Bill amends the safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act. Thirdly, the Bill recognises that “the family environment and parenting in particular determines outcomes for children” (Barlow et al. 2007, p.1) as it encourages an atmosphere of collaborative effort between children’s parents and the centres’ staff. The national evaluation of the family and parenting support in Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLP) although concluded that the good practice was insufficiently common to result clear benefits in terms of parenting outcomes, it nevertheless underscored good practices in parenting support: their primary focus on improving the relationship between parents and children, and helping parents to parent better; active support of parenting from pregnancy through toddlerhood and beyond, and often including at least one evidence-based programme; use of very clear models or theoretical approaches that clearly informed the way in which all staff within the centre worked with parents to achieve change; modelling of good relationships with both parents and children; and the skills and insight of staff, who delivered the programmes effectively through a combination of training, supervision and experience. (Barlow et al. 2007, p. 4 & 7) These good practices essentially follow the ‘Key Worker’ model of service delivery, which is “most prevalent in the United Kingdom, as a result of the statutory guidance of the 1989 Children’s Act” (Drennan, Wagner & Rosenbaum 2005, p. 1) as these good practices although not yet sufficiently common nationwide promote family-centered care just like the Key Worker Model in the forms of “coordinated care, respect and support, general information, enabling and partnership, specific information about child and advocacy” (p. 5). References Bakhitova-Niazoff, Madina 2005, ‘Motivation to Succeed Develops in Early Childhood’, Children Psychology, University of the Rockies, North America, viewed 15 June 2010 Barlow, Jane, Kirkpatrick, Sue, Wood, David, Ball, Mog, and Stewart-Brown, Sarah 2007, ‘Family and parenting support in Sue Start Local Programmes’, National Evaluation Summary: Evidence and Research, ISBN 978 1 84775 009 9, viewed 15 June 2010 Bullock, Janis R. 2002, ‘Bullying among children’, Childhood Education, vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 130-33. Department of Children, Schools and Families 2010, Sure Start Children’s Centres Legislation – Expected implications for local authorities, children’s centres and key partners, UK. Drennan, Alison, Wagner, Teena, and Rosenbaum, Peter 2005, ‘The Key Worker Model of Service delivery’, Keeping Current, no. 1, pp. 1-6 Family.org editorial staff 2009, ‘Child behaviour: What parents can do to change their child’s behaviour, The Author, viewed 15 June 2010 Franken, R. 1994, Human motivation (3rd ed.), Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., Pacific Grove, CA Hattie, John 1992, Self-Concept, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey Hove and London. Hillen, Ruth 2009, Attachment and Separation - Developing Growing Confidence and Independence - Toddler to Teen, viewed 15 June 2010 Huitt, W. 2001, ‘Motivation to learn: An overview’, Educational Psychology Interactive, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA. Viewed 15 June 2010 Lamb, Jennifer, Pepler, Debra J., and Craig, Wendy 2009, ‘Approach to bullying and victimization’, Canadian Family Physician, vol. 55, pp. 356-60. Lee, Allison 2009, ‘Encouraging positive behaviour’, How To, viewed 15 June 2010 Olweus, D. 1991, ‘Bully/victim problems among schoolchildren: Basic facts and effects of a school based intervention program’, in The Development and Treatment of Childhood Aggression, eds D. J. Pepler & K. H. Rubin, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 441-448. Ontario Ministry of Education 2007, ‘Bullying prevention and intervention’, Policy/Program Memorandum No. 144. Canada. ‘Promoting good behaviour’ 2010, Kid’s Behaviour, viewed 15 June 2010 ‘Positive parenting at home’ 2010, Kid’s Behaviour, viewed 15 June 2010 White, Krista A. 2009, ‘Self-confidence: A concept analysis’, Nursing Forum, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 103-7. Whitted, Kathryn S. and Dupper David R. 2005, ‘Best practices for preventing or reducing bullying in schools’, Children & Schools, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 167-70. Read More