MANAGING PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

You are quite unlikely to meet a parent who has not got worked up about his child’s behavior at some time or the other. The term ‘problem behavior’ is used not for occasional outbursts but for more enduring behavior patterns. There is a widespread assumption that children are what they are, good or naughty, shy or sociable, friendly or aggressive, largely because of the way their parents bring them up. Parenting according to this thinking is something that is done to the child and the child himself is a more or less passive recipient of his upbringing. This is not always so. A parent of more than one child soon becomes aware that the same family background produces children who are very different from one another. It is the individuality of children that forces parents to react to each child in a unique and special way. From birth, children influence their parents’ behavior as much as parents influence theirs. And that is why what works for one child rarely works for the other.