Re: Re: Aggression in young children

[Guest guest]

I think you may be missing the function of the behavior. You have focused on

the antecedent - crying, etc. Switch your focus to the consequence. What is

maintaining the behavior? If he is always unsuccessful at getting the child to

stop crying, then something else is motivating the behavior. What IS he getting

out of it? What IS happening every time he aggresses? Once you figure out what

is reinforcing the behavior (making it occur again and again), you can eliminate

that reinforcement and decrease the behavior.

Just some general ideas. If you would like more information, please e- mail me.

Sincerely,

e Quinby

Behavior Consultant

e@...

[ ] Re: Aggression in young children

Dear Listers,

Wondering if anyone has any plans for reducing the following behavior.

4 year old boy is in a typical class, he hits and pinches the children when

they cry/Sing/or whine- We have been unable to decrease the behavior we have

tried several things, although in a typical classroom setting it is very

difficult to use extinction when he is aggressing toward other children. He

has had a very low tolerance for crying at home for a very long time, he has

a 3 year old typical sibling and she cries all the time. Clearly he is upset

by the loud noise she makes and uses his aggression as a way to negatively

reinforce himself where he is always unsuccessful (he hits the child cries

more). Any referral to peer reviewed articles would be greatly appreciated.

Deb

Elija.org

[Guest guest]

Hello Deb,

I had to respond to your post. My son had the same problem. Even

though, he always has been an even tempered kid, due to his hearing

sensitivity, he could not tolerate crying. He used to start crying with the

other child and if they don't stop, he would put his hand on other child's

mouth (his loud younger brother) OR scream and hit.

When he did not have much language, he used to do that a lot. We

taught him the action " CRYING " , he picked that up really quick and would

label anybody crying. At the same time, he himself started covering his

ears. Then he learned the emotion " SAD " on his own. Now whenever he sees

someone crying, he does covers his ears but says " He/She is sad!! " and trys

to comfort the other child.

He still has hearing sensitivity to the loud noise but, he is coping better

with it.

Any body has done anything about the hearing sensitivity, please share...

-Rucha

[ ] Re: Aggression in young children

Dear Listers,

Wondering if anyone has any plans for reducing the following behavior.

4 year old boy is in a typical class, he hits and pinches the children when

they cry/Sing/or whine- We have been unable to decrease the behavior we

have

tried several things, although in a typical classroom setting it is very

difficult to use extinction when he is aggressing toward other children. He

has had a very low tolerance for crying at home for a very long time, he has

a 3 year old typical sibling and she cries all the time. Clearly he is

upset

by the loud noise she makes and uses his aggression as a way to negatively

reinforce himself where he is always unsuccessful (he hits the child cries

more). Any referral to peer reviewed articles would be greatly appreciated.

Deb

Elija.org