“All human behaviour has a reason. All behaviour is solving a problem.”
-Michael Crichton
Behaviour, in its most basic form, refers to the actions, reactions, and interactions of an individual within their environment. As parents, it can sometimes feel overwhelming trying to understand your child’s behaviour because of their complex patterns. For parents, the question often comes up: What causes my child’s behaviour? Is it a reaction to sensory experiences, a way to manage themselves, or maybe a way of acting out? To understand these reasons, parents need to look closely at behavioural psychology and child development.
Behaviour is anything a person can exhibit in terms of action or reaction, based on how he or she interacts with the world around him or her. Behaviour in children may manifest differently, such as aggression, withdrawal, overactivity, or following rules. Many factors, such as biological, mental, and environmental influences, determine these behaviours.
Different behaviours need different responses. So, when your child exhibits certain behaviours, identify and try to tackle the underlying causes of those behaviours.
Types of Behaviours:
To sufficiently address the intricacies of child behaviour, it is crucial to consider three main categories that can guide parents in understanding and guiding their child’s actions.
1. Sensory-Driven Behaviour-
Sensory-driven behaviour is the way a child reacts to things they sense around them. These things can be sounds, lights, textures, smells, tastes, and even how clothing feels or the temperature. Some children may respond too much or not enough to these things, which can cause certain behaviours.
➣ How to Identify Sensory-Driven Behaviour?
Over-sensitivity: Your child may cover his ears if it is too loud outside, avoid certain textures on clothes and foods, or get visibly agitated from bright or flickering lights.
Under-sensitivity: Children with under-sensing tend to search for experiences that are too intense; they may include spinning, hitting against objects, or chewing on inedible substances because the environment does not provide enough stimulation.
Identify what sets it off: Consider which of some noises, emotions or situation exacerbates the behaviour. Is your child getting bothered only during noisy environments? Only during rush hour? Etc.,
Provide the right sensory experience to your child: If your child needs sensory input, try to do activities that ensure them a safe chance of getting the stimulation, such as bouncing on the trampoline or with fidget toys.
2. Self-Regulatory Behaviour-
Self-regulation refers to the ability to control your feelings, actions, and body based on what is happening around you, in a way that is acceptable to others and fits the situation. When a child has trouble with self-regulation, he may have difficulty controlling his urges, feelings, or responses to certain events, leading to frustration or outbursts.
➣ How to Identify Self-Control Actions?
Emotional overreactions: If the child is not able to calm down from an upset or looks more than required over slight frustrations, then that would be a display of inability to control emotions.
Impulsivity: A child doing this without thinking about what the event might bring (such as breaking toys from other kids, and shouting in class) may easily fall into uncontrollable behaviour.
➣ What you can do?
Be a good example of staying calm: Let your child know how to remain calm when things get tough by acting the way you want them to act. Deep breathing or counting to ten can help.
Make clear routines: Kids do pretty well with regularity so having set routines helps them to feel safer and handle their behaviour more easily.
Teach coping strategies to help your child learn healthy ways to manage stress, such as deep breathing, using a quiet space, or doing a calming activity like drawing.
3. Acting Out-
The child acts out or becomes aggressive to voice themselves although not make sense, gets frustrated, or is completely overwhelmed with feelings. If acting out is not sensory, nor a self-regulatory action, then acting out behaviour does often show the desire for attention, and control over a situation, also communicating the unmet needs.
Acting out can include aggressive behaviour, such as hitting, kicking, or throwing things when they are upset.
Acts of defiance: If your child rarely obeys orders, ignores requests, or talks back, this could be a form of acting out.
Pay Attention: Sometimes, children exhibit misbehaviour just to be noticed, good or bad.
➣ What You Can Do?
Stay calm: If one person acts out calmly, rather than becoming angry, the behaviour might not get worse.
The real issue is about acting out usually due to the lack of fulfillment of certain needs, or there’s missing communication.
Clearly define consequences: There should be clear rules and consequences for bad behaviour, which your child will understand in terms of what he can and cannot do.
Determining the Root Cause of Behavioural Issues:
- Observation – Watch out for when and where such behaviours occur. Do they depend on a particular environmental/social condition? Out of those observations, it might be able to identify the trigger for behaviour.
- Emotional Environment – Also look at the emotional climate around your child, whether he experiences any stress, significant changes, or transitions; any of these can affect his behaviour.
- Parent-child Interaction – Look at how you respond to your child’s behaviour. You might add to negative reinforcement or inconsistency towards a behaviour. Establishing a positive stable interaction can lessen incident chances due to those disruptive events.
- Professional Opinion – If any consistent pattern develops concerning high-end behaviour, professional advice from a psychologist and/or a behaviour specialist would be helpful. They will identify issues and develop strategies tailored to the specific child that would meet these behaviour issues.
On a concluding note,
Every child is unique, shaped by their own experiences and how they see the world, so there isn’t one solution to their behaviour. By creating a supportive environment, staying watchful, and using positive strategies, parents can better understand their child’s actions. This helps their child grow and develop in healthy ways.